French presidency in the European Union : a dull response to the challenge of growth

If the French presidency demonstrated that the absence of an ambitious political project for the EU was harmful to the direction of negotiations because of the diversity of interests between the member states, it also paradoxically revealed that any specific position occupied by a large member state is automatically taxed with partiality. In this sense the French Presidency lost in two ways. It was accused of bias and arrogance by certain member states, namely smaller states, for promoting without precaution certain national interests, while at the same time not succeeding in putting together any innovative project capable of creating leadership.

 Summary AFRI-2001