5 million for the only personnel expenses

Talleyrand, the "lame Devil", who was from the revolution to the monarchy of July through the first Empire, nearly all major strategic designs of the France abroad, gave its letters of nobility to French diplomacy. It is his brilliant formulas. He has not started a day that "the best diplomat auxiliary is his cook" Today, however, the menu of the Ambassador is different. And if some homes remain places of gastronomy, the Quai d'Orsay, at the time of the reform of the State and the wasted hunting, is found in the memory portion. Although its share in the some 8 billion euros spent on external action of the France tends to increase, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does, indeed, only about half this amount. After the Finance Act, 39 departments economy, defence, Interior, Education, Culture, research national include this year of the appropriations implemented abroad. Bercy is at the top with its present economic missions in more than 115 countries.

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"The Quai is a minority shareholder of foreign policy." Of course, there a blocking minority. "But it is not a majority," said a senior official. The main shareholder is to look at the Elysee Palace. Tradition established since 1993, the President of the Republic fixed to diplomats, the Conference of Ambassadors held each year in late summer, a heavy programme of work. Thus, on August 29, asked them to be "avant-garde" and "engine" of the action from abroad. But do have the means to fight on all fronts at the same time To promote the "made in France", to say the voice of our country to the Governments and institutions, private or public, to support the fight against terrorism, to adopt as possible to the national interest, to protect and make the most favourable European guidance services to the 1.25 million French expatriates 40 more than it ten years and travellers

The diplomatic network includes 156 "bilateral" embassies, plus 17 representatives and 4 permanent delegations, including from international organizations. Such a structure class the France second in the world, behind the United States (162) and in Britain, which, last year, has reduced its 150 to 144 embassies. Paris is in no less attacked its network of consulates general. 116 In 1996, they fell to 95 this year, including the closure of Bern and the transformation of the Consulate General of Lisbon in a simple consular section at the Embassy. Because for an officer of the dock, in contrast to the famous phrase of Stalin: "the Vatican, how many divisions", the power did not just number of settlements.

Abandonment of positions

Force constraints, the Department account for 1.4 of the State budget, had to reduce its workforce by 11 within a decade, to bring them to any persons 9.100, including replacing the half of the retirements. With these cuts staff and operating expenses, the Quai d'Orsay succeeded a feat: reduce its so-called costs of structure of 33 of its total budget to 25 per cent this year. But there is a limit. As Philippe Douste-Blazy, like its predecessors, defends the need for a "comprehensive coverage". "Our network, says, is the measurement of the weight of the France in the world, fourth shareholder of international institutions and permanent member of the Security Council. From a purely accounting point of view, the closure of a "small" Embassy released only a very small margin of manoeuvre. The abandonment of the smaller 15 of them would be originally from an economy of only EUR 13 million per year, less than half of the operating costs (26.6 million) of the only Embassy of France in Rome, believes the warden Raymond-François breakage in a recent report commissioned by the Government. Because the scale of costs is very open, ranging from 240.000 euro for Asmara, Eritrea, with a roving Ambassador, 41.3 million for Berlin, including 32.5 million for the only personnel expenses...

Above all, the reduction of the means of French diplomacy begins to grind teeth. Louis Dominici, former Ambassador, today President of the Trade Union of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, doesn't mince his words. "It is never the resources for its ambitions." "But the difference today is that it is more", he says. In December 2003, for the first time in the history of the Quai d'Orsay, agents went on strike in protest against new "reform proposed by the Minister of the time, Dominique de Villepin. Denouncing the decrease of certain premiums of expatriation and the shortage of paper, or even work schedules, which have, for some, tend to lie more than 10 hours per day, the protesters, diplomats including, highlighted with force that he was not a movement of rich. And yet! "Since December 2003, it nothing happened." It is as if one had shouted in the desert. "After financial puncture, Dominique de Villepin has not restated the fire", said Ambassador trade unionist. For him, there is a true abandonment of positions "without that we say to the French people". And to quote the case of the Russia, where, in addition to the Embassy in Moscow, there is only a Consulate in Saint Petersburg.

Alchemy complex

However, the Department is poised to launch a reform IXth. Objective: to adapt to a new gives, one of the emerging powers such as the India and China and Europe with his attempt to create a common foreign policy. To do this, the image of the United States, the France will review this year its mapping and consolidate its embassies "in seven large packages of country", not a geographical approach, but based on issues and tasks. Among them, health issues, the environment, the diffusion of French culture and especially the opportunities for growth in Asia China and India, in particular, but also to the Viet Nam, where our country is again represented the United States and Britain. It is, said a senior official of the Department, to move away from the model Deutsche Bank "all business, all countries" to allocate means to embassies on their dominant roles. "Should be done the same things in Hanoi to Beijing" wondered a head of administration at the Quai d'Orsay. This complex alchemy, which avoids close chanceries, must enable the France out of a "diplomacy of legacy", because it remains very involved in what was his "empire", i.e. Africa. According to the report the debris is still Asia is poor parent. Which implies that the diplomats themselves change and are ready to make a great leap forward. The "cultural revolution" by Alain Juppe, head of diplomacy from 1993 to 1995, did not convert a magic wand all the habits of the "Department", still very often regarded as the home of understatement. However, number of diplomats have already become coordinators, managers of the France overseas services, even in some countries in true VRP. "Our Ambassador in Beijing about spends 60 of the time on the economy", stressed recently before deputies Jean-Pierre Lafon, Secretary General of the Department until March. Of course, there are always the holdouts. But their number tends to be reduced. Members of Parliament, for a long time the most critical on the management of the Quai d'Orsay, recognize a mutation. "It reflects a willingness to change which could serve as a model for many other departments", asserted as Richard Cazenave, UMP MP Grenoble, rapporteur of the Bill of finance 2006 for the Department.

Learn how to handle numbers

But still, as lamented Jean-Pierre Lafon, a true culture of the audit. By training and taste, diplomats know in General better handle the words than the figures.

In its 2004 report, the Court of Auditors noted "serious failures" of the Department in its role of contracting authority, "the estate incoherent in its programmes constantly reviewed, modified, or even abandoned". Judges have put forward a series of crisp examples such as the construction of the new Embassy of France in Berlin, whose excesses have now become legendary: sofas for 5200 euros unusable unity because of their sharp armrests and, finally, overflow of over EUR 35 million from an initial budget of 44 million. Since then, the Quai d'Orsay has endeavoured to correct shooting. And if the castle of Ernich, in Bonn, where the former Embassy of France was located has not yet found licensee at a correct price, villa Trotty, in Monaco, seat of the representative of the France in the Principality, was sold to an Italian patron for... EUR 50 million, or 20 better than expected. A first step towards a concerned management of public funds.