FRANCE: SARKOZY'S JANUARY COLLOQUIUM - INVITATION TO NEW

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 002259 SIPDIS WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC AND NEC: DPRICE; TBRADLEY AND KKVIEN STATE FOR: E; EUR/FO; EEB/FO AND OBAMA TRANSITION STAFF TREASURY FOR U/S MCCORMICK AND LNORTON E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/03/2018 TAGS: ECON EFIN PGOV PREL WTO EU FR SUBJECT: FRANCE: SARKOZY'S JANUARY COLLOQUIUM - INVITATION TO NEW U.S. ADMINISTRATION REF: PARIS 002183 Classified by Charge Mark Pekala, reasons 1.4 (b),(d) and (e) ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Embassy has received a formal invitation from the GOF inviting Ambassador Stapleton and representatives of the new U.S. Administration to participate in the recently announced January 8-9 Paris Colloquium on: New World, New Capitalism. Copies of the invitation and draft program have been emailed to the Department. Action request: (Para 5) Embassy requests guidance asap re U.S. participation. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) In his letter to the Ambassador, State Secretary Besson, who has the lead in the GOF on organizing the colloquium, notes that President Sarkozy and former UK PM Blair will be co-hosts of the event. PM Fillon will host dinner after the first day and FM Kouchner will host a closing lunch. Confirmed participants, according to the correspondence from Besson, include: Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia; Giulio Tremonti, Italian Minister of Finance; Neelie Kroes, EU Commissioner for Competition; Pascal Lamy, Director of the WTO; Gamal Mubarak, leader of the Egyptian National Democratic Party; Edmund Phelps, Nobel Prize Winner; Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize Winner; Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize Winner; Francis Fukuyama, Professor at John Hopkins University; Howard Davies, Director of the London School of Economics, and Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Professor at Sciences Po Paris. ¶3. (SBU) We understand that this list continues to grow by the day. The substantive program for the one-and-a-half-day conference will consist of three round tables with five speakers on each. The topics for the roundtables are: Values of capitalism - Can or should capitalism be moralized; Have the benefits of globalization been overestimated; and, How far capitalism be regulated. ¶4. (C) In our conversations with Besson's staff it is clear that they would welcome participation of the USG as well as representatives of the incoming Administration; possibly along the lines of the formula used at the G20 Summit in Washington, where the President-Elect designated certain individuals to meet with delegations on his behalf. ¶5. (C) Comment and Action Request: The January Colloquium in Paris, judging from its themes and President Sarkozy's recent initiatives on the global economy, will likely go far toward advocating a regulatory heavy, quasi-permanent role for government to control market economies. It would be timely and useful to have this high-level gathering hear an American perspective. In particular, this conference offers an opportunity to manage French and international expectations of U.S. policy on managing the current global financial crisis. Pekala