Examination of Witnesses (Questions 20-24)
HE Maurice Gourdault-Montagne and Mr Diego Colas
10 JUNE 2008
Q20 Lord Wright of Richmond: Ambassador,
I just wanted to ask a very quick question about how you see the
Presidency's relationship with the Quartet in working towards
a Palestinian state by the end of the year, which is the perhaps
rather optimistic target which has been set. Also in relation
to the last question, is there a risk that EuroMed will divert
attention and indeed finance from the attempt to solve the Palestinian
problem?
HE Maurice Gourdault-Montagne: I do not think
so, Lord Wright. There is the Quartet and Europe has a role to
bring to the Quartet, but what is the Quartet without the Americans?
That would be the main question, I think: what would be the action
of the Americans during the electoral period? That is the main
difficulty. At the present time, as you have seen yourself, where
settlements are continuing and when one does not know exactly
where the Israeli Government is orientating its policy, this will
be the main problem, so, whatever EuroMed or other forums are
doing, it will be a difficult issue.
Q21 Lord Harrison: Ambassador, the
last priority you spoke of in your opening address was helping
small businesses. How will the French Parliament avoid platitudes
about small businesses like cutting red tape or making finance
accessible, important though they are, and instead establish a
plan which includes the completion of the Single Market as the
most effective way of encouraging small businesses to work?
HE Maurice Gourdault-Montagne: You are right,
we are always coming to platitudes in this regard. What I hope
is that, since we have started to work very much upstream with
the British Government, we shall avoid platitudes. We have been
working very closely with Baroness Vadera since the end of last
year, so there should be some practical measures for the support
of SMEs, and access of the public market is something which is
not very concrete and gives capacities of development to companies
which would actually be rather focused or restricted in their
capacities of action. We would like to give some capacities also
for access to capital risk and to credit which would be something
very concrete and tangible for the SMEs, so all these measures
put together should give us something concrete at the end of December.
Q22 Lord Kerr of Kinlochard: Ambassador,
supposing the growth of the European economy continues to slow,
supposing Monsieur Trichet's next move is, as he hinted, an upward
move in interest rates and, as a result, the dollar drops further
against the euro. Will France return to ECOFIN to demand more
political control over the Central Bank? I remember the President's
visit to ECOFIN last summer: will we see that again?
HE Maurice Gourdault-Montagne: Lord Kerr, if
you have noticed, President Sarkozy has been less, I would say,
expressive or talkative about these issues in the last months.
We consider that the policy which has been run by the European
Central Bank in the last months has been a proper one, in particular
their management towards the financial turmoil, so I do not see
any risk of having the position of the French Government and the
French President in the way you describe.
Q23 Baroness Cohen of Pimlico: I
am very interested, as Chairman of the Sub-Committee which produced
our euro report, because when we published the report on the euro
we discovered all sorts of myths about the euro had been demolished;
that it was not going to tear Europe apart and the less well-developed
countries, the southern states of Europe, were not going to have
a problem with having their growth constricted. Do you feel, if
the ECB rates do go up, that this would begin to make life difficult,
and I am not thinking of France but Italy, Portugal, the countries
that have suffered more?
HE Maurice Gourdault-Montagne: It is difficult
for me to answer on behalf of these countries, as I am sure you
understand, but the euro has proved to be the best protection
for the European countries in the past. We had to suffer competitive
devaluation which destroyed entire sectors of our activities;
the textile sector and the leather sector were thus destroyed.
With the euro, in fact, we have had protection and the critical
mass protected us very much from being hit. Of course, it does
not prevent us from a contagion of some effect in the financial
system itself but, on the whole, regarding the economic growth
of Europe, the euro has helped very much the European economy
to continue to grow and not to be affected.
Q24 Lord Wade of Chorlton: Very briefly,
I was very pleased with what you said about encouraging investment
into Africa and clearly we have been very behind that, but I hope
that that investment will be in such a way that it will not go
to governments but will go to where it is needed into the economic
needs of different countries, along the lines of Objective 1 and
2 investments in Europe. Would you agree with that?
HE Maurice Gourdault-Montagne: As you know,
there are lots of measures taken now and very much pushed in the
form at the G8 to control where this money goes, wherever it comes
from. Much more accountability and good governance are now required
from the governments in Africa, so I would not be so pessimistic
regarding this issue of where the money goes.
Lord Wade of Chorlton: Well, I hope you become
more pessimistic if you want to make full use of the money!
Chairman: Thank you very much indeed, Ambassador,
and also Diego Colas, for being with us. That was very informative
and very helpful to us. May I on behalf of the Committee wish
France all the best with your Presidency. You said there are no
great events contemplated, but who knows? Thank you very much
for coming to see us.
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