POLISH EMBASSY ON FRANCO-POLISH AND FRANCO-GERMAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 002306

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/01/2016
TAGS: PREL FR EUN GE PL KPKO CG
SUBJECT: POLISH EMBASSY ON FRANCO-POLISH AND FRANCO-GERMAN
RELATIONS

REF: A. 05 PARIS 1617


B. PARIS 2252

Classified By: PolMC Josiah Rosenblatt for reasons 1.4 (B & D).


1. (C) Summary: Polish Embassy PolCouns described for us
April 6 an improving Franco-Polish relationship and growing
French interest in the Weimar triangle grouping of France,
Germany and Poland. She attributed growing French activism
to attempts to offset its waning influence both vis-a-vis
Germany and within an enlarged EU. Germany's increasing
importance, she suggested, had led to a rockier Franco-German
relationship, owing mainly to France's reluctance to give up
its former, privileged role. Raciborska discerned more
positive French engagement on Belarus and Ukraine, while
acknowledging French reluctance to irk the Russians. She
noted an increased Polish contribution to the Franco-German
EU mission to the DRC as testimony to the new vitality of the
Weimar arrangement. End Summary.


2. (C) Deputy PolCouns met April 6 with Polish PolCouns
Lidia Raciborska for a tour d'horizon that touched on the
various legs of the Weimar triangle grouping of France,
Germany and Poland, in addition to French internal political
developments and Franco-U.S. relations. We report them here
for what they are worth.


3. (C) Raciborska affirmed that the positive evolution in
Franco-Polish relations, loudly trumpeted by the French press
when France and Poland combined forces during the EU budget
negotiations of last December, was not a new development (see
also ref A). Notwithstanding Chirac's (in)famous February
2003 complaint that the then-EU candidate states had missed
an opportunity to remain silent on Iraq, France, she
continued, had already begun to improves it relations with
the new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe well
before the May 29 referendum on the EU constitutional treaty
(ref A). Raciborska judged that French efforts had taken on
new urgency since the election of Angela Merkel as the German
chancellor. According to Raciborska, France, as opposed to
Poland in the past, was now the main proponent of a
strengthened Weimar triangle grouping.


4. (C) Deputy Polcouns, noting that France was Poland's top
foreign investor, asked what additional factors motivated
France's growing interest. Raciborska responded that French
activism reflected France's decreasing influence within an
enlarged EU as well as a concern that it needed to make more
efforts to offset growing German influence. Moreover, Merkel
had made clear that Germany itself would be placing more
emphasis on better relations with new member states and no
longer would focus as exclusively on its relationship with
France. Raciborska claimed, based on her discussions with
German counterparts, that, notwithstanding French claims to
the contrary and the exisence of an extremely dense network
of Franco-German institution building and cooperation, that
the bilateral relationship was increasingly beset by tensions
and disagreements. Deputy PolCouns asked if she saw the
problems more as ones of method or something else.
Raciborska responded that the Germans were increasingly
insisting on being treated as a full equal, whereas the
French continued to act as if nothing had changed since the
days when France furnished the political, and Germany the
economic, power of the tandem.


5. (C) Asked in what ways the Franco-Polish relationship was
improving, Raciborska cited French interest in cooperation on
energy security and growing French involvement in EU policy
toward eastern Europe. This was particularly true for
Belarus and Ukraine. That said, she noted -- echoing EUR A/S
Dan Fried's latest round of meetings with French officials
(ref B) -- that the GOF remained reluctant to take positions
that might irritate the Russians. She claimed that French
officials in almost every meeting warned against "waking the
sleeping Russian bear." (We commented that the French surely
could not have failed to notice that the bear was already
awake.) The second major difference, Raciborska adduced, was
that the French no longer complained about Iraq.


6. (C) Raciborska used the occasion of the meeting to inform
us that the Polish government had just decided to increase
its contribution to the EU mission to the DRC (led by the
Germans with French support) from thirty to one hundred.
This had greatly pleased President Chirac, she said, and was
testimony to the vitality of the Weimar arrangement.

PARIS 00002306 002 OF 002



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