|
News News Europe Sarkozy on the world stage
| Sarkozy on the world stage |
|
|
| Thursday, 13 November 2008 | |
|
In the final months of France’s presidency of the EU, Nicolas Sarkozy looks back on his achievements, warning that he hasn’t finished with the Lisbon treaty yet Nicolas Sarkozy delivered a powerful speech to the European Parliament at Strasbourg on October 22, summing up his actions as President of the European Union since he took over on July 1. Speaking without any notes and with great conviction he was warmly applauded by all parties. Not everything that he said pleased everybody but there was general agreement that, when needed over the war in Georgia and dealing with the financial and economic crisis, Europe had at last found a voice. Speaking bluntly but without seeming offensive, the President was quite clear that the present crisis was unleashed by the decision of the United States government to allow Lehmann Brothers to go bankrupt on September 15. Similarly, he said that it was not possible that the world should continue to finance the huge US deficit without having “a word to say about what was done to deal with the consequences”. Talking about the war in Georgia, Sarkozy said the Russians had over-reacted but that they had reacted to an entirely inappropriate Georgian action. He called for an “economic government for the Eurozone” in the form of head-of-state meetings, while acknowledging the need for the European Central Bank to remain independent. Concluding his speech, he suggested the setting up of individual sovereign funds in member states and if necessary on a European basis, to protect European industry from non-European purchasers while stock market prices are at their present low. Suiting his actions to his words, he has announced the setting up of just such a fund in France.  The President’s final message was that the current crisis has shown that reform of the European institutions on the lines of the Treaty on the Constitution was now essential. He made it clear that he intended laying out a plan to deal with Irish objections and get on with implementing the treaty before his period in office ends on December 31. As a result of the range of meetings he has had, with European countries, with President Bush and then with the Chinese and other Asian economic powers, a series of conferences is to be held in Washington, hosted by the United States. The aim is to create new financial structures and to monitor international credit more effectively, perhaps using a reformed International Monetary Fund. Despite his undoubted successes, Sarkozy has not had things all his own way. His aim was for the conferences to be held at the United Nations in New York on relatively neutral ground. However, the United States overrode this and simply said that only Washington had the necessary facilities. Another friction was over who should attend the conferences. Sarkozy wanted to invite Spain but the US has blocked this. The Spanish are not pleased, pointing out that by some measures their economy is the eighth largest in the world. As things stand, the invitees are the G8 – the USA, Japan, Germany France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada and Russia – plus the members of the G20, an enlarged forum created after the Asian and Russian currency crises in 1999. The French President did successfully insist that the date of the first meeting should be set for November 15, after the American elections so that the new US President will have some input. There are also differences as to what the conference is really about. According to a spokesman for President Bush, it will deal with “identifying the causes of the crisis” and avoiding any repetition. President Sarkozy says that the series of summits will “rebuild the international financial system incorporating a more effective control of all the operators within it”. Either way, it is on Sarkozy’s initiative that it is happening at all and so quickly. |
| < Prev |
|---|
| French are less pessimistic! |
| According to the monthly opinion poll BVA the economic confidence index among French people has increased for the second month running. | |
| Read more... |
| Battle rages to control Socialist party |
| The French Socialist party is locked in a fierce procedural struggle to establish clearly who won last Friday’s election for the post of Secretary-General. | |
| Read more... |
| Ségolène by a whisker? |
|
The French Socialists know they will be led by a woman. They will not know until tonight which one. The result will be very close. |
|
| Read more... |
| Simone Veil achieves immortality. |
| The 81 year old lawyer and politician has been elected at the first attempt to the ranks of the Académie Française known to the French as' les Immortels'. | |
| Read more... |
