Monsieur Pierre-Christian Taittinger, Madam Beatrix de Montgermont-Keil, it is indeed a very great honour to be invited to speak at this dinner celebrating the 20th Anniversary of ESU France. When ESU France was founded 20 years ago everyone thought it remarkable if not hazardous. Now it seems self-evident that the ESU should be here in France and doing so well in France. I congratulate all who have brought about this happy outcome.

As it happens I was last night at a reception at the French Residence in London. A good friend of mine Tom Vyner, Deputy Chairman of L'Oreal in the UK was invested as a Chevalier of the Ordre de Merite. He reminded us that even Edmund Burke, one of the fiercest critics of the France of his day had confessed that "France has always influenced manners in England". Never has that been as true as now and my friend Mr Vyner was able to remind those attending the reception that today no less than 67% of all women in the UK use L'Oreal products!

The French Ambassador at this reception advanced a novel proposition about the relationship between England and France. He said "Our differences mean that we do not always understand each other. Our similarities mean that we always compete with each other. Why do we not reverse these characteristics? Let us use our similarities to understand each other and combine our differences to compete with the world." The Ambassador believed this would result in an incredibly formidable combination but also admitted that it hadn't happened in the last thousand years but he was optimistic about the next thousand.

I feel the Ambassador had a real point but I see no reason why we should restrict his "formidable combination" to London and Paris - a tale of two cities when we could write a tale of three cities. If Europe and America, the European Union and the United States, London and Paris and Washington could work together in our interdependent world, leveraging our differentiation and building on our shared values then both sides of the Atlantic would gain. The English language can be a great facilitator of such a development.

The Frenchman who has influenced me most is Jean Monnet, often describe as Le Pere d'Europe - the Father of Europe. As a BBC reporter it was my great opportunity and privilege to get to know him to interview him and to talk with him over many hours at Houjarray. Jean Monnet was indeed the Father of Modern Europe proposing the Coal and Steel Community and then Euratom and finally the Common Market but he was not a one dimensional proponent of European integration. Monnet understood interdependence, and he realised that our prosperity and survival turns on making interdependence work.

As a young man he was asked to pioneer joint logistical planning and supply for France and Britain in the desperate situation of 1917. He ensured that our two countries did not compete for American supplies but planned together how best to bring them from the US to Europe. In 1940 he worked with Churchill and de Gaulle on the proposals to create a union between France and Britain before the Nazi victory doomed that project. In both these cases interdependence was a last resort.

Yet Monnet spent his life trying to make interdependence a first not last choice and in this he was much influenced by his experience in the United States before WWII. He admired enormously the way in which the United States had come together again after the Civil War and had engendered a mighty republic which twice had come to the rescue of the Old World. Monnet wanted the European nations to understand and profit from their interdependence and he wanted a real understanding of interdependence to develop between the United States and what was to become the European Union

Sadly, mutual understanding between the US and Europe has diminished dramatically in recent years. BBC World has just published an opinion poll carried out amongst its viewers. Numerically their sample was very large and international. Shockingly only 29% of those polled saw the influence of the United States today as being "Mainly Positive". The remainder had no opinion or saw the US as a negative force. This is sad and it is dangerous but I believe it stems from a disastrous misreading by some in the United States of the present balance of power in the world. You see there is no balance. The United States is and for the foreseeable future will remain the world's only super power. But that does not mean that the United States can afford to be unilateralist. The US which in the past has done so much to promote the international community must re-learn that we live in an age of essential interdependence.

Back in 1976, I was once asked by a US immigration officer on entering JFK airport at what for me was 3 o'clock in the morning and who had seen on my passport that I worked for the European Community, "What's that?" It was an existential moment and in some detail I explained the history of the European Community to him. Bemused he waved me through commenting "It sounds like a mighty big company to me!"

If we are asked today that same question how would we answer it? We would of course have our complaints and problems but the great majority of Europeans would acknowledge that we are safer and richer as a result of European union. In the globalised, competitive environment of this century we will be a lot safer and richer if we also grasp the interdependence of the Atlantic Community turning as it does on the relationship between the EU and the US.

What can we do in the ESU to forward this understanding of interdependence? Our motto is "Global understanding through English". What can we do to promote understanding between the two sides of the Atlantic? English is the language of an interdependent world but can it contribute to building interdependence between the US and the EU.

Charles Dickens opened his Tale of Two Cities - Paris in the Revolution and London with a paragraph that has become amongst the best known in the English language. He introduced his tale of conflict and heroism like this.

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was an age of wisdom; it was an age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief. It was the epoch of incredulity. It was the season of light. It was the season of darkness. It was the spring of hope. It was the winter of despair. We had everything before us. We had nothing before us."

We too have everything before us but if we do not act we could find we have nothing before us.

In a modest but I believe significant way we in the ESU - in Paris, in London and in Washington can take an initiative building on what has already been achieved. We can write a tale of Three Cities - each one the capital of a great nation and each one the seat of a great democracy.

We already organise internships for young people from America to work in the UK parliament in London. Young Brits enjoy internships on the Hill in Washington. We have a very limited exchange sending one Brit to work at the Assembleé Nationale and young person from France to work at Westminster. Let us expand this triangular exchange offering the opportunity for young Americans to work in Paris, the French to work on the Hill and the Brits to work in both. Lets us then ensure that these interns share their experiences with the wider ESU afterwards. We already know that the Washington/Westminster internship programme generates some of the most enthusiastic alumni of the ESU. This is a programme that we can grow and for which we should seek sponsorship. This evening I have heard again from Colin McCorquodale, our London Chairman, from Madam Beatrix de Montgermont-Keil and from Grahame Downe from Washington how much they support this idea which is born of their own work and thinking in recent years.

I believe this three city programme can build real understanding of the democratic and political processes in our three capitals and reinforce our understanding of interdependence and of the intimate affinity of experience and ideals that we need to underpin the Atlantic community.

Second, I believe we should institute a lecture programme in which once a year we invite a speaker to address the ESU in each of these three great cities. We have the Churchill Lecture in London; we have the Thatcher Lecture in the US. Let us have a Three City Lecture and am delighted to inaugurate this with my talk here tonight.

In the future there can be other three city initiatives and we are currently considering the possibilities between Shanghai, St. Petersburg and Hamburg, all sister cities, all centres of globalisation, all great trading centres and all using English and all with a strong ESU presence. More of that in the years ahead but for now let us focus on our three great cities of Paris, London and Washington.

Jean Monnet believed in the practical and the concrete. He believed in one step at a time but always in the same direction. Our direction is "global understanding through English". Let's take this step in that direction by creating a "Tale of Three Cities".