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Viewing cable 07PARIS3200, SCENESETTER CABLE: CODEL OBEY AUGUST 5-7

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07PARIS3200 2007-07-27 10:41 2011-08-24 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Paris
VZCZCXRO4133
OO RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHFR #3200/01 2081041
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 271041Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9178
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 003200 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR H (PLEASE PASS CODEL OBEY) AND EUR/WE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL FR EUN ETRD ECON PGOV SENV UNO
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER CABLE: CODEL OBEY AUGUST 5-7 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  Not for Internet distribution. 
 
1.  (SBU) You will be arriving in a France whose mood is 
decidedly up-beat.  President Sarkozy's energy and 
determination to meet challenges head-on and break with the 
past have lifted national morale.  His resounding 
presidential victory May 6 -- notwithstanding the French 
electorate's decision in the June 17 legislative elections to 
bolster the Socialist opposition -- has given Sarkozy a 
broad-based mandate to undertake long overdue economic and 
social reforms.  Sarkozy's larger goals are to adapt France 
to globalization and to renew the country's confidence in 
itself as an international actor. 
 
2.  (SBU) To achieve these goals, Sarkozy is seeking renewed 
economic growth to reduce France's chronically high 
unemployment rate (especially for youth) and to win 
maneuvering room to address the economic and social 
rigidities that have caused France to languish for a 
generation.  Sarkozy hopes that broad-based reforms -- from 
taxes and labor markets to university admissions -- will 
increase productivity, boost competitiveness and reduce 
unemployment.  Although he may yet encounter popular 
resistance this autumn, the president is off to a fast start. 
 We will watch closely to see how he reconciles his 
pro-market reform agenda with a more statist approach to 
issues that include industrial policy, EU competition policy, 
and proposals for a eurozone "economic government" to temper 
the ECB's focus on inflation-fighting. 
 
3.  (SBU) We have gotten off to a good start with the new 
Sarkozy administration, and turned the page on our 
differences over Iraq.  From the President on down, France's 
new leaders are pledging a relationship of mutual confidence 
and continuing close coordination on most of the issues that 
matter: Lebanon/Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Russia, 
Darfur, and counter-terrorism.  For our part, Secretary Gates 
(in inaugurating the Normandy Visitor Center you will also be 
visiting) and Secretary Rice have sent loud and clear 
messages about France's importance to the U.S., symbolized 
most recently by the ship visit by the nuclear carrier 
Enterprise.  This does not mean that the U.S. and France will 
always agree, or that tone equals substance.  Indeed, Sarkozy 
has continued to make the point that France will continue to 
develop its own positions based on its own analyses of 
situations and its understanding of French interests, a case 
in point being his adamant opposition to Turkish EU 
membership.  However, even when our views differ, the Sarkozy 
government has indicated an interest and willingness to work 
closely and pragmatically with the United States. 
 
4.  (SBU) Since taking office, Sarkozy has already succeeded 
in a remarkably short time in giving France, and indirectly 
the EU, a larger voice on the international stage.  He was 
among the first to advocate a simplified EU treaty on 
institutional streamlining to overcome France's 2005 
rejection by referendum of the EU draft constitutional 
treaty, and he played a key intermediary role in obtaining 
the consensus of France's other EU partners.  He publicly 
proposed delaying a decision on Kosovo final status for a few 
months to give the parties (and Russia) more time to find a 
solution.  He called for a conference on Darfur to coincide 
with Secretary Rice's visit, and recently obtained the EU's 
agreement to send a peacekeeping force to Chad.  Seeking to 
break with previous policy, and profiting from his long 
experience and personal connections in Lebanon, Sarkozy's 
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner fame hosted a 
reconciliation dialogue among Lebanon's political factions, 
to include Hizballah.  Last but not least, using his wife 
Cecilia as an emissary, Sarkozy appeared to play a key role 
-- and stole headlines -- in the release of the Bulgarian 
nurses and Palestinian doctor held by Libya in connection 
with HIV/AIDS. 
 
5.  (SBU) Although Prime Minister Fillon officially presented 
the government,s plan to the Parliament in early July, it is 
clear that it is Sarkozy who will manage many of the key 
dossiers in the new French government.  Labor market reform, 
tax changes that encourage overtime work beyond the 35 hour 
work week, mortgage deductibility to encourage home 
homeownership, further pension reform, smaller government, 
the provision of minimum services during strikes and possible 
changes to France,s collective bargaining system are 
highlights of the policy initiatives that are either 
underway, or in the offing. The outcome of this process could 
well determine whether the United States has a newly 
confident, dynamic, forward-looking economic partner in 
France. 
 
6.  (SBU) The Sarkozy government is also shaking up GOF 
 
PARIS 00003200  002 OF 002 
 
 
economic policymaking structures.  Following through on a 
campaign promise the president has created a "super ministry" 
of sustainable development by combining the former ministry 
of ecology with energy, transport and regional planning 
directorates hived off from other ministries.  The goal in 
part is to internalize environmental and sustainable 
development concerns in policymaking, though it's too early 
to tell whether the change is having its intended effect. 
Nevertheless it does signal that Sarkozy wants his government 
to focus on the nexus of environment )- notably climate 
change -- and the global economy.  Sarkozy signaled as much 
during his election night victory speech when he called on 
the United States "to take the lead" in the fight against 
global warming. 
 
7.  (SBU) Sarkozy welcomed President Bush's statement on a 
proposed new climate change framework in May, but he 
continues to advocate binding constraints on greenhouse gas 
emissions as a necessary ingredient of a post-2012 Kyoto 
follow-on agreement.  He has also called for the imposition 
of a "carbon tax" on imports from countries that "do not 
respect environmental standards" as a means of defending 
Europe's CO2 emissions trading system (ETS).  Our interest 
has been to emphasize our desire to intensify collaboration 
with France in developing climate-friendly energy 
technologies, in sharing approaches to energy efficiency, and 
by underscoring the dynamism of the private sector in 
attacking climate change. 
 
8.  (SBU) While keen on introducing market-friendly domestic 
reforms, Sarkozy is not shy about articulating a strong role 
for the state on French industrial and competition policy, 
and in promoting national or European "champions." As finance 
minister he helped to shape the French government's bailout 
of Alstom, and subsequently defended the policy before a 
critical European Commission.  Sarkozy's advisors tell us the 
experience forged the president's view of EC policy on state 
aid and competition as being excessively dogmatic. 
 
8.  (SBU) Sarkozy has also made it plain (by attending the 
July 9 Eurogroup meeting of Finance Ministers) that he wants 
France )- and member states generally -- to play a more 
active role in coordinating economic policy.  To that end, 
Sarkozy has asked Minister of Finance Christine Lagarde to 
work with partners to create an "economic government" of 
Europe as a vehicle for engaging in dialogue with the ECB. 
Enjoying broad political support for his views at home, 
Sarkozy seems unperturbed by the criticism he's attracted 
elsewhere in Europe for his implied criticism of the ECB and 
euro exchange rate policy.  Sarkozy's appearance at the July 
9 Eurogroup finance ministers meeting also underlined his 
personal commitment to tax cuts that may help make France's 
economy more dynamic over the longer term, but that will push 
the target date for a balanced budget from 2010 to 2012. 
Sarkozy was more successful in arguing for the candidacy of 
former Socialist Minister of Finance Dominique Strauss-Kahn 
to become IMF Managing Director. 
 
 
Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm 
 
 
STAPLETON