FRANCE: STILL RESERVED ON PARTNERSHIP FOR DEMOCRATIC

UNCLAS PARIS 003973 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS EUR/WE, S/P FOR SOKOLSKY AND GERAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KDEM EAID FR SUBJECT: FRANCE: STILL RESERVED ON PARTNERSHIP FOR DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE REF: SECSTATE 131040 ¶1. (SBU) Emboffs have discussed the Partnership for Democratic governance (PDG) on several occasions with French officials in recent weeks. They have told us they do not believe France will join as a founding member, but have not excluded deeper involvement at some later date. ¶2. (SBU) In a meeting with Econ M/C September 14, Jean-Marc Chataigner, Chief of Staff to Secretary of State for Cooperation and Development Jean-Marie Bockel said that though a final decision on becoming a founding member had not been made, French reservations remained. He characterized the proposal as "much improved" from the original idea, but clearly thought that France would wait and see how it worked in practice. He emphasized that France had not blocked the project from going forward in the OECD, and that it would support it in a limited way through UNDP. ¶3. (SBU) Econoff delivered reftel demarche to MFA Office Director for Multilateral Economic and Financial Affairs Cyrille Pierre September 21. Pierre noted French reservations about the sustainability of governance capacity building programs, and a more philosophical concern about externalizing sovereign functions of government. That said, France did not exclude deeper participation in the PDG depending on how well it worked with UNDP and the transparency of the selection process for contractors. The OECD had a good reputation in this domain, he said. ¶4. (SBU) Comment: Both contacts gave a de facto "no" in the most polite and tempered ways they could think of. We do not believe that lobbying at a higher level would be effective at this time but it is possible that the GOF will enhance support for this program later, especially if it effectively targets one or more countries of priority interest to the GOF. Pekala