French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has called for the European Union (EU) to display a "European Roadmap" as part of a larger role in trying "to help bring peace to the Middle East." He explained he was not calling for proposals contrary to the American roadmap but wants recognition of a stronger European influence.
 
FM Kouchner asserted that the change in the American government next year "will be the moment to propose a form of partnership that will take more account of the symbolic, and real, weight of the European Union…. This is about giving European foreign policy its rightful place."