[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.The summit also endorsed further political union of the EU as reassurance that the new, big Germany would remain firmly integrated with its neighbors.To quote Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher:“We don’t want a German Europe but a European Germany.”8So Giscard’s European Council proved a significant innovation, wresting some of the power in the Community away from bureaucrats in the European Commission and into the hands of national leaders meeting in regular summits.But the French president was also concerned about lack of cooperation in the West as a whole, in the face of the economic challenges of the mid-1970s.In early 1975 he broached the idea of a summit of the principal Western leaders to resolve the urgent economic problems.Schmidt agreed:“We want a private, informal meeting of those who really matter in the world.”9 Heads of government were in a position to consider economic issues as an integrated whole, rather than fragmented in 407reynolds_02.qxd 8/31/07 10:29 AM Page 408sum m i t sareas of departmental responsibility.They also had the political authority at home to push through decisions.Sharing the burdens of supreme office with others in similar positions could ease the loneliness of power and inculcate a sense of shared responsibility.Giscard’s model was the working group of the Big Five finance ministers who had been meeting regularly and productively for a couple of years.He, Schmidt and George Shultz (then U.S.Treasury secretary) had been founding members, and Shultz’s support for Gis-card’s new idea was critical in winning over President Gerald Ford.The result of their planning was a meeting at Rambouillet, thirty miles southwest of Paris, on November 15–17, 1975.Despite the grandeur of the sixteenth-century château, now the summer residence of French presidents, Giscard tried to make the event seem like an informal weekend house party.The leaders of the original four, plus Japan and Italy, had plenty of time to socialize as well as to discuss pressing economic problems, particularly how to regulate the new regime of floating exchange rates.Giscard advocated occasional summits—conducted informally and without tight agendas, phalanxes of officials or media spotlight—to build understanding among key leaders.But the Americans took a different line.They favored regular, decision-making meetings, backed by officials, and thought it counterproductive to hold the media at arms’ length.After the success of Rambouillet, President Ford hastily arranged another meeting at the El Dorado Beach Hotel near San Juan, Puerto Rico, in June 1976.Canada was now included, making this theGroup of Seven, or “G7” for short.Many suspected that Ford’s real concern was to boost his image ahead of the autumn U.S.election but at least the momentum was maintained.With President Carter taking a keen interest, at a further meeting in London in June 1977it was agreed to make these economic summits an annual summerevent.By now a clear pattern had emerged.Each leader chose a senior official to act as his personal representative, known in appropriately Mount Everest parlance as the “sherpa.” The sherpa from the up-coming host country would consult with his counterparts, draw up an agenda and rough out possible areas of agreement for an even-408reynolds_02.qxd 8/31/07 10:29 AM Page 409sum m i t ry as a way of l i f etual communiqué.The summit was also the occasion for meetings of foreign ministers and finance ministers.To prepare for these each minister appointed a “sous-sherpa”—adding to the complexity.And since the summits were usually convened in capital cities, it became difficult to keep the media at bay or to restrain leaders from grand-standing for public consumption.In an effort to get back to basics, the Canadians held the so-called Ottawa summit in July 1981 at Le Château Montebello, an isolated hunting lodge some fifty miles from the capital.Billed as “the largest log cabin in the world,” Montebello could accommodate all the leaders and officials under one roof—which saved time and maximized contact—while leaving thenewsmen marooned in Ottawa.“Peace, perfect peace, with lovedones far away,” said one jaundiced press officer [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]