to make orange the signature color of MoDem. She also took a particular interest in the EU's Erasmus Mundus, expanding on the popular Erasmus program to create opportunities for students outside Europe to study in its universities as well. In the contentious on ratifying the European Constitution, de Sarnez supported ratification. Although the measure failed, de Sarnez praised the "democratic moment" of the entire nation reading and debating the text. In 2009, she published a short book called Petit dictionnaire pour faire aimer l'Europe (A Brief Dictionary for Loving Europe). The book covers 80-odd subjects in 250 pages, appealing to a vision of Europe that centers equity in its relationship with the rest of the world. De Sarnez was a substitute for the Committee on Foreign Affairs, a member of the delegation for relations with South Africa, and a substitute for the delegation to the EU–Chile Joint Parliamentary Committee. In 2016, she served as the parliament's rapporteur on a plan to lend Tunisia €500 million on favourable terms to help it reduce its external debt and consolidate its democratic mechanisms. In addition to her committee assignments, de Sarnez was a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Children's Rights. In May 2017, de Sarnez left the European Parliament upon her appointment as French Minister for European Affairs. Reporting from Le Canard enchaîné shortly thereafter alleged that de Sarnez had been paid for work she had not actually done, embroiling her and Bayrou in a jobs scandal. Prosecutors opened an investigation into whether assistants to de Sarnez as an MEP had actually been paid for work done for the MoDem party in Paris. Both she and Bayrou (the new Minister of Justice) resigned, just before the 2017 legislative election in which de Sarnez was a candidate with Emmanuel Macron's newly formed party, La République En Marche! Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced that Bayrou would not be a part of the government. On 21 June 2017, Nathalie Loiseau succeeded de Sarnez as the minister for European affairs. Representative of Paris Despite the timing of the scandal, de Sarnez, who was also a councillor (joint RPR-UDF slate) for the 14th arrondissement of Paris from 2001 to 2010 and from 2014 to 2020, was elected Deputy to the National Assembly for the 11th constituency of Paris on 18 June 2017. She became chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, serving in that capacity from 2017