“Danny The Red” Meets The AAPA
If the 27-nations of the European Union want to re-launch their stagnating economies and EU political integration, it must be a collective effort and not that of one or even several leaders, and it will probably take years, according to Daniel Cohn-Bendit. Speaking to some 20 AAPA members at the Paris headquarters of the European Parliament March 5, the outspoken leftist European deputy…
The Bank of France Opens Its Doors To AAPA
A group of 17 AAPA members had the rare privilege on Feb. 15 to meet with Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer over dinner in the central bank. As an aperitif, we visited the glittering Galerie Dorée. M. Noyer then gave us a guided tour of some of the sumptuous salons of the former Hôtel de Toulouse, explaining the origins of some of the bank’s artworks, including a rarely seen painting by…
Syrian Opposition Figure Speaks Out
Bassma Kodmani, a member of the Executive Bureau of the Syrian National Council (SNC) and founder of the Arab Reform Initiative, warned AAPA members on Jan. 26 that if the international community doesn’t step in, the situation inSyriawill degenerate into civil war. Close to 30 members heard Kodmani give a pessimistic but realistic appraisal of developments on the ground and predicted little help…
Another Meeting With J-D Levitte
Nearly 30 members met on Nov. 16 with President Sarkozy’s diplomatic adviser Jean-David Levitte. In keeping with the now-established tradition, the meeting was off-the-record and for members only, and took place at an annexe of theElyséePalace. We have been meeting with Levitte regularly since 1995, when he was diplomatic adviser to former president Jacques Chirac. With his usual frankness,…
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear Fellow Members, The new AAPA committee held its first meeting November 28 and rapidly got down to work drawing up an exciting and challenging programme for the coming year. The well-attended meeting compiled an eclectic list of events covering potential guests from political, economic, industry, banking, culture, defence and media backgrounds inFranceand…
UNESCO Director General Invites AAPA After PalestineVote
By Ronald Koven UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova told a breakfast meeting Nov. 9 with members of the Anglo-American Press Association that she is heartened by the decision of theUSgovernment to continue to be active in the Paris-based Organization, despite a legal requirement to withhold US dues over the recent admission ofPalestineas a full-fledged member state. The breakfast at UNESCO’s…
A Career Making Revelations and Eluding Threats
Pierre Péan, France's best-known investigative journalist, told AAPA members that he had resorted a few years ago to writing about the French Revolution's bloody campaigns against monarchist rebels in Brittany as a way to escape threats to himself and his family over his exposures of contemporary political and financial scandals. At a well-attended meeting on Oct. 11 over evening drinks at the…
Meeting with Jean-François Copé
In our second meeting with him in just over a year, on October 27, Jean-François Copé, close ally of President Nicolas Sarkozy and UMP secretary general, provided insights and blunt commentary on the looming presidential election next spring, and on why he thought there was little if any debate here on France's foreign policy. We met at UMP headquarters over breakfast, almost entirely…
AAPA Mourns Peter Stephens
Peter Stephens, a long-time Daily Mirror Paris bureau chief and one of the towering figures of the post-World War II foreign press corps, died at his home in the 16th arrondissement on Sept.30. A former president of the AAPA, he was 92. Born inEnglandin 1919, Peter first became fascinated byFrancewhen he arrived with the British Army during World War II. He had been training to be a doctor when…
AAPA meets with Arab League Envoy
The burning issues affecting Arab countries and the ongoing diplomatic ballet over the Palestinian question in the United Nations were among the key issues discussed between Arab League Ambassador to France Nassif Hitti and AAPA members over breakfast at the Procope Oct. 4. Hitti, a veteran diplomat and a multicultural academic, shed light on the complicated and often labyrinthine mechanisms…