By voting massively against the draft European Constitutional Treaty on 29 May 2005, the French people rejected a certain idea of Europe which emanated from Brussels, whose bureaucracy is divesting nations of their sovereignty. Today the President of the Republic has less power over the European institutions than has, for example, the Governor of Nebraska in the United States over Washington.

The ‘Europe of nations’ which I propose to construct, and which will be based on cooperation, will allow member states to keep their sovereignty (that is to say the control of their frontiers), and of their foreign, monetary, economic and fiscal policies–and of course their defence policies. As Charles de Gaulle affirmed in 1959: ‘The defence of France must remain in French hands.'⁽¹⁾

How are we to revive European progress in the field of collective security and defence? What is your position with respect to enhanced cooperation and the protocol referring to permanent structured cooperation (Chapter III of the Constitutional Treaty)?

The 500 million inhabitants of the 27 member countries of the European Union spend collectively and in absolute terms half as much on defence as do 295 million Americans. The United States devotes 3.4 per cent of its GDP to defence, against an average of 1 per cent for Europe.