France turns new face to US, world

Helping to 'relaunch' the EU

Perhaps it is action on the European Union that will first occupy the attention of the new president of France. Sarkozy's team has been meeting regularly with that of chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, which currently holds the EU presidency, over "institutional reforms."

France's popular referendum in 2005 said "no" to a European constitution that many in France felt would further erode France's traditional leadership position in the ever-larger EU, which now includes 27 nations. Institutional reforms, however, offer a way forward – a "road map" – on a smaller set of changes that are still significant. This includes an individual president of the EU, not a country, as is the current approach, that has at least a 2-1/2-year term. It would also streamline decisionmaking.

"No relaunch of the EU is possible without France," says Fréderic Bozo a professor of European studies at the Sorbonne. "The French president has the key to progress, and Sarkozy will have a mandate. After the failure of the referendum in '05, French foreign relations really suffered and lost credibility and Sarkozy wants to address that."

With a mandate, Sarkozy is expected to engineer and approve changes on behalf of France, without a referendum. Sarkozy will send a team on May 15 to Berlin to work out an acceptable formula, sources say. An agreement would likely be announced on June 21, as Germany gives up its presidency, and would extend another six months, through Portugal's presidency.

Sarkozy's adamant opposition to Turkish membership in the EU was one of the strongest position's taken by any French candidate on foreign policy during the election. He declared Turkey "part of Asia-Minor" and said it should not be allowed into the Union. The question is extremely sensitive at a time when Turkey, embroiled in a debate over its secular status, is unclear about its own future after 40 years of negotiating for EU membership. Sarkozy's "Mediterranean Union" is considered a conciliatory gesture, though details are not yet known.

"It is one thing to say that Turkey isn't part of the EU," says Mr. Bozo. "It is another to stop the negotiation process. I don't think he can do that."

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urged Sarkozy not to interfere with the EU talks. "In regard to both the European Union process and the French-Turkish relations, our wish is that from now on we do not see the same statements that Sarkozy has made in election meetings in our bilateral relations," Mr. Erdogan told reporters Monday.

'We know we're behind' EU neighbors

French voters have been uneasy at the perceived decline of France's traditional clout overseas. France has traditionally been regarded as "punching above its weight" in international affairs, but has suffered setbacks over its opposition to the Iraq war, the 2005 EU vote, and its industry has not kept pace with Germany's.

Typical of the popular view in France about what Sarkozy can achieve is Pedro-Louis, an aerospace engineer from Paris who didn't want to give his last name: "I voted to reform France's culture, so that we can be strong again," he says. "When I talk with my German and English colleagues, they see France as a big, beautiful country. But we know we are now behind them. Germany has taken and integrated an entire country, the East. We need a stronger spirit of enterprise to compete. We need to be stronger in Europe, because Europe competes with itself. But France needs to be strong country in the world as well."

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