PARIS -- Created in 1360 to help pay the ransom for King John II the Good following his capture by the Black Prince's English forces at the battle of Poitiers, the French franc is living its final days. From Jan. 1, it, along with the currencies of most other Western European nations, will be replaced by the euro.

A child of French President Francois Mitterrand and German chancellor Helmut Kohl, the euro was conceived when the Deutsche mark was the strongest currency in Europe. Once Germany was reunified -- making it the most populated and the richest country on the continent by far -- the fear was widespread that Germany's economic and financial weight would open the way to its political domination of Europe and that the Deutsche mark would become the continent's de facto premier currency. Germany did its best to appease this fear by agreeing to give up the mark and merge it with a single European currency.

There are two signs that this ambition has been met. First, some candidates for the French presidency are "souverainists" -- another way to say they are anti-European -- but only a few of them speak of restoring the franc. Second, while a majority of Britons still view the euro with skepticism, Prime Minister Tony Blair is increasingly determined to convince them to rally around it.

The creation of the euro has been a long battle, but the fact that it's about to be won does not mean Europe can limit its ambitions to the monetary field. Its primary aim is to become one of the strongest powers in the world, enabling it to have its interests and views given more consideration. Nobody would contend this has been achieved.

Two developments this fall reflected Europe's weakness. First, despite the presence of a few European military units in Afghanistan, the war there has been an American effort. Second, although most European governments question Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's handling of the Palestinian issue, their criticism has not affected the Bush administration's support for Israel.

Hence the need for the EU to increase its weight in the international arena and -- since it will be joined in coming years by 15 countries -- to think seriously about simplifying its procedures. In other words, it must overcome the trend of most governments to think more in terms of national interests instead of what is beneficial for Europe.

Last year's Nice summit tried to find answers to these two questions, but nothing significant has been achieved since then, despite the signing of a new treaty. A new summit was recently held to try to work out something more conclusive. Contrary to expectations, though, EU members failed to agree to the creation of a European corps for Afghanistan.

The Belgian prime minister, who chaired the meeting, abruptly decided to end the summit when he saw that it would be impossible to reach an agreement on how EU members would share the hosting of the 10 or so new "regulatory agencies" that were to be created to deal with various security problems ranging from food to transportation and police.

But the members did manage to agree on several important points, including the creation of a European arrest warrant, which will facilitate judicial cooperation among member states.

They also created a "special convention" that provides for holding an "intergovernmental conference" in March 2003 to discuss the EU's future. France and Germany, which are again closely cooperating, will recommend the adoption of a constitution aimed at answering the often-raised question "who does what?"

Will the convention succeed? The federalist credo of former French President Giscard d'Estaing, who has been appointed its head, is solid. At 75 he remains an ambitious fighter who is anxious to link his name to some new major achievement, including perhaps becoming the first president of Europe.

The convention's composition, which seats representatives from the European and national parliaments together with delegates from the EU's executive office, ought to enable it to escape the usual bureaucratic routine and to open a genuine debate on issues concerning the election of a European president and power-sharing among the EU, states and regions. Giscard will propose that the convention use the next three months to examine what people expect from Europe. "Then we will see if they have common demands."

Giscard can be trusted to do everything possible to bring Europe back into the headlines even if he looks to many to be a man of the past rather than the prophet the EU needs. He might find a challenger on this road in Blair, who increasingly believes he has been appointed by Providence to be Europe's main leader, starting as the mediator in EU-U.S. relations.