Europe is at a turning point, battered by a severe global crisis and in the midst of an identity crisis regarding the very essence of the European project itself, said Lalumière, the first woman to have served as secretary-general of the Council of Europe (1989-1994).
The generation in command of the EU appears tired and lacks a sense of running the European project, she added.
"In the past, lucid minds warned that what threatens the European project was indifference. I ask myself if the generation in command today is not tired and threatened by indifference, that is, the loss of a sense of European construction, a loss of ambition and the will to reach objectives. Things are cast adrift," she said.
Lalumière cited as an example Helmut Kohl, West German chancellor from 1982 to 1989, and then of the reunited Germany until 1998. Kohl's decision to give up the Deutsche Mark in 1990 to embark on the euro project (largely to make the idea of German reunification more palatable to countries such as France) was an "enormous decision" by the Germans, and "he accepted unpopularity in his country," Lalumière said.
Lalumière drew a parallel with the position of Merkel, who opposed for several months a plan to bail out Greece during the crisis, but nevertheless failed to retain her majority in recent elections in North Rhine-Westphalia (EurActiv 10/05/10).
She admitted Merkel had "maybe made a small mistake," but the episode did not alter her conviction that the current German chancellor is "certainly the strongest among European leaders and bearing the greatest resemblance" with Helmut Kohl, François Mitterrand and Jacques Delors.
The French veteran politician believes that had Merkel decided quickly to help Greece, this act of courage could have boosted her party in the election context.
"From the historic point of view, courage is important for a personality's image," she said.
Asked to put French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the same context, Lalumière declined to comment on his overall performance, but praised him for steering the EU throughout the French EU Presidency (July-December 2008).
But she criticised Sarkozy's position with regard to Turkish EU accession, as the French president wants a "privileged partnership" with Ankara to replace fully-fledged membership of the Union.
"I do not approve of his position […] Turkey is a big country that has to be respected and listened to. We cannot say, just like that, that the country is not European and will not accede the EU. This is a position that I find simplistic and which I regret, and I wish the president would approach the subject with a broader viewpoint. I think this would be in the interest of France and of the whole of Europe," she stated.
To read the interview in full, please click here (French only).
