The former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing said Europe "cannot move ahead without the Franco-German engine".
That will be a more difficult message to push in the wake of Giscard d'Estaing's remarks.
"We have the ability to attract customers from all around the world, " Mr. Giscard d'Estaing said.
Mr Giscard d'Estaing, for example, wants to introduce a limit of two consecutive quinquennats.
In 1975 he was appointed State Secretary for Defence by President Valery Giscard d'Estaing.
Mr Giscard d'Estaing says that his proposals are simply meant to improve the council's work, without weakening other institutions.
In Turkey, few have forgotten the words of former French president and architect of the EU constitution Valery Giscard d'Estaing.
Mr Giscard d'Estaing's people, however, hope that the convention's deliberations will give the constitution enough legitimacy and coherence to withstand revision.
Unlike Mr Giscard d'Estaing, who had to run against Mr Chirac as well as facing Mitterrand, he has no centre-right rival.
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The intergovernmental conference to consider Mr Giscard d'Estaing's constitution is supposed to wind up in 2003 before the new members join the Union.
They said that the current management, including chairman and chief executive Henri Giscard d'Estaing, would remain in place if the bid was successful.
He added the claim that the same system of secret payments existed under former presidents Georges Pompidou, Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Francois Mitterand.
France will be represented instead by former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing.
Estaing is a fairytale village of just 600 people with a castle and a 16th-century Gothic bridge over the Lot River that has been awarded Unesco World Heritage status.
Mr Giscard d'Estaing's proposals would create more continuity by setting up a president who could serve for up to five years and flanking him with a foreign minister.
Reports that Mr Giscard d'Estaing had demanded a hefty wage for the post, plus expenses and a lavish hotel room, did little to endear him to his opponents.
Other elements of Mr Giscard d'Estaing's proposals sharpen these suspicions.
The chairman, former French President, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, was appointed to the post amid much bickering after the country's incumbent president Jacques Chirac threatened to veto any other choices.
Mr Giscard d'Estaing's convention is packed with enthusiastic Euro-centralisers and harmonisers, but there has been a notable toning-down of their proposals since the first clauses of the proposed constitution were published in February.
In Brussels a group of 105 European politicians, under the chairmanship of the former French president Giscard d'Estaing, is busily putting the finishing touches on what will effectively be a constitution for the expanded European Union.
Critics of Mr Giscard d'Estaing feel that a 76-year-old former president is an inappropriate choice of candidate to bridge the gap between the EU and its people, and that the group as a whole features too many ageing politicians and not enough women.
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