French Presidency of EU:
Nice to host European Council this December
-Claudine CANETTI, France
France is preparing its presidency of the
European Union. Its intense activity is linked not only to the material organization but
also to the contents and the political priorities. Indeed, choosing the towns in which
these summits, whether they be formal or "informal", is no easy matter. In
France, this choice is the responsibility of the president of the Republic’s office,
but it can only concern towns meeting a certain number of precise parameters which led to
Biarritz’s being selected for the "informal" summit of October and Nice for
the European Council of December, with the hint of a third possible summit proposed by
Jacques Chirac, a Euro-Mediterranean one this time, which would, in addition to the
fifteen members of the European Union, bring the heads of state and government of the
coastal countries along the Mediterranean together in Marseilles.
The first criterion is the accommodation
capacity of the hotels, which has to be sufficient to put up several thousand people:
delegations, the press, the logistic, technical and security staff, etc. The second
concerns the presence of a sufficiently huge conference and meeting center, adapted to the
constraints of security and of easy access and providing the indispensable logistic
environment, in particular interpreting services and restaurants,. The third parameter is
the existence of an operational structure for receiving the press. For a European Summit,
the number of Journalists for whom a place with all the work facilities will have to be
provided is estimated at between 3 and 4,000. The fourth criterion is a nearby point of
access, in this case, an airport able to handle the numerous official aircraft, meeting
very strict security standards and capable of dealing with quick arrivals and departures
in close succession. The dozen or so French towns likely to meet all these requirements
include Nice, the 5th largest town in France with its numerous assets. It is the second
most important French town for conferences thanks to Acropolis that has several times been
described as the best Conference Center in Europe. It has the second biggest airport. It
is the main port for cruises and the second most important tourist center in France. Its
hotel capacity is also the second largest in France and they have a particular charm with
the big listed hotels, which have maintained their Belle Époque setting. Nice also prides
itself on having a rich historical and architectural heritage and an active artistic
cultural life around its sixty or so protected and listed monuments, not forgetting its
famous light which led Matisse to say, << When I realized that I would see that
light every morning, I could not believe my happiness. I decided not to leave Nice and I
stayed there practically all my life>>. Once a town has been chosen for a summit, a
well-oiled mechanism comes into play, under the impetus of the logistics department of the
Ministry of Foreign affairs and the supervision and coordination of the general
secretariat of the French president Republic’s office. Teams set to work choosing
hotels and places for meetings. Numerous contacts take place between those in charge and
the local representative, the prefecture, the security services and the managers of
airports for the joint work of organizing the summit and preparing and developing the
existing structures. The press is a very important element in the plan. The Department of
Communication and Information at the French Ministry of Foreign affairs and the press
department at the French president of the Republic’s office take charge of organizing
the reception of the press. They work in close collaboration with the Palais des
Congre’s and the European Broadcasting Union whose headquarters are in Geneva and
which organizes the work with the broadcasting company of the host country, chosen after
an invitation to tender. The latter will be in charge of taking all the pictures of the
summit and of transmitting them to the EBU which will in turn send them to all the
television stations in the world. It is a service that the French authorities offer free
of charge to journalists and the European Broadcasting Union then reaches an agreement
with its members on the cost of re-diffusion, depending on the expenditures called for.
Security is obviously an essential element in the organization of the summit, prepared in
close liaison with the protocol services of the other delegations, with the organization
of the corteges, the attribution of special badges to those accompanying the personalities
present at the summit. As there are four EU summits a year, the procedures are perfectly
regulated. Everybody knows each other but every thing is still ordered in a very strict
fashion.
What can be done not to disturb the daily
life of the inhabitants of the chosen town who have to be able to get on with their lives,
travel around and carry on working more or less normally?/ This is an important aspect of
the preparation of the summit dealt with thanks to very close contacts with the local
authorities. One can imagine the importance of the work of information needed to explain
to the locals, who are extremely annoyed, that any possible constraints imposed on them
are very temporary and that putting their town in the media spotlight can have positive
repercussions later on. Every thing is done to reduce any inconvenience caused by the
summit to he minimum with corteges’ reduced as much as possible and moving around
made fluid to the utmost. The most important aspect is communication with the local
public. Nice will witness the end of the French presidency of the EU whose work program
includes major themes: preparing the future of an extended Europe, the construction of a
Europe of growth and employment in the wake of the Lisbon summit in February, bringing
Europe closer to the true concerns of its citizens and the reinforcement of the role and
influence of the EU on the international scene. The preparation of the extension of Europe
is composed of three main parts:; an intergovernmental conference for the reform of the
institutions, which is an indispensable prerequisite for the adhesion of new members which
France hopes to bring to a successful conclusion, the continuation or commencement of
negotiations for adhesion with 13 candidate countries, ten countries in central, eastern
and Baltic Europe, plus Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, and progress in the area of a Europe of
defense. |
