AFP: Sarkozy calls for changing the way Europe is being built
Sarkozy calls for changing the way Europe is being built
President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday called for a profound change to the way Europe is being built as France prepared to take the helm of the European Union. "There have been errors in the way that Europe has been built," Sarkozy said in a television interview as France was to take over the presidency of the 27-nation bloc starting on Tuesday. "We must therefore profoundly change our way of building Europe," he said.France wants to push issues it says Europeans find relevant: taking steps to stem the influx of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers; assuaging fears that jobs are being lost to globalization and emerging powers like China; softening the blow of high oil prices on fishermen, farmers, truckers, and low-income households.
France's presidency will, a senior diplomat told me recently, be "fun". That is not a word used often to describe EU presidencies.
