Paris: France takes over the European Union's rotating presidency on Sunday for what was originally billed as six months of action-packed diplomacy, but other EU capitals and Irish voters have forced it to scale down its aims. Last year, fresh from his election victory, President Nicolas Sarkozy had a range of plans for his turn at the helm, from an EU-style Mediterranean Union to bringing the bloc's new institutional order into force and hosting a summit on the euro. Those plans have either been watered down or scrapped, taking the sheen off Sarkozy's ambitions. "We went from a vision that Sarkozy was going to change Europe to a slightly more realistic view of what a president can do," said Olivier Louis, head of the EU presidency programme at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
Paris: France takes over the European Union's rotating presidency on Sunday for what was originally billed as six months of action-packed diplomacy, but other EU capitals and Irish voters have forced it to scale down its aims.
Last year, fresh from his election victory, President Nicolas Sarkozy had a range of plans for his turn at the helm, from an EU-style Mediterranean Union to bringing the bloc's new institutional order into force and hosting a summit on the euro.
Those plans have either been watered down or scrapped, taking the sheen off Sarkozy's ambitions.
"We went from a vision that Sarkozy was going to change Europe to a slightly more realistic view of what a president can do," said Olivier Louis, head of the EU presidency programme at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
"We went from a vision that Sarkozy was going to change Europe to a slightly more realistic view of what a president can do,"
ROTFLMAO...
This now gets tendentious. Have you read just one example of a Sarko fan realising s/he was duped who admits it s/he should have foreseen it? *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
