French president Nicolas Sarkozy has let it be known he believes Paris outmanoeuvred London in the negotiations on EU jobs in recent weeks, with the appointment of a Frenchman to take charge of the internal market in the face of strong British opposition seen as the biggest political coup. In unusually blunt comments, likely to fuel the simmering feud between France and Britain over the merits of Anglo-Saxon capitalism, Le Monde over the weekend reported Mr Sarkozy as saying: "It's the first time in 50 years that France has had this role. The English are the big losers in this business." The president made the comments after it emerged that Michel Barnier, a former French foreign minister, will take on the internal market portfolio, including financial services, when the European Commission starts its next mandate early next year.
In unusually blunt comments, likely to fuel the simmering feud between France and Britain over the merits of Anglo-Saxon capitalism, Le Monde over the weekend reported Mr Sarkozy as saying: "It's the first time in 50 years that France has had this role. The English are the big losers in this business."
The president made the comments after it emerged that Michel Barnier, a former French foreign minister, will take on the internal market portfolio, including financial services, when the European Commission starts its next mandate early next year.
Michel Barnier, the EU's new commissioner-designate in charge of regulating the internal market and financial services industry, said he wants to reconcile French citizens with free-market policies by putting them at the service of citizens and jobs. EurActiv France reports. "A commissioner is a political man or woman," Barnier told journalists in Paris on Friday (27 November) after his appointment as the EU's new internal market commissioner had been announced. Barnier gave few details of his intentions for his new role, saying he will save such comments for his approval hearing before the European Parliament on 11-19 January.
"A commissioner is a political man or woman," Barnier told journalists in Paris on Friday (27 November) after his appointment as the EU's new internal market commissioner had been announced.
Barnier gave few details of his intentions for his new role, saying he will save such comments for his approval hearing before the European Parliament on 11-19 January.
EU foreign relations chief Javier Solana, who retires this week, will be remembered as a master of quiet, behind-the-scenes diplomacy. But campaigners say he should have done more to put human rights at the forefront of his work. The Spanish politician will on Tuesday (1 December) step aside to make way for the union's first "foreign minister" as the Lisbon Treaty enters into force. The British official to take up the new post, Catherine Ashton, will have a tough act to follow. In his 10 years in the job Mr Solana has transformed the EU's common foreign and security policy from words on paper into a Brussels-based body of some 800 military experts and diplomats who co-ordinate the work of 23 crisis relief missions in hotspots such as the Gulf of Aden and Kosovo.
The Spanish politician will on Tuesday (1 December) step aside to make way for the union's first "foreign minister" as the Lisbon Treaty enters into force. The British official to take up the new post, Catherine Ashton, will have a tough act to follow.
In his 10 years in the job Mr Solana has transformed the EU's common foreign and security policy from words on paper into a Brussels-based body of some 800 military experts and diplomats who co-ordinate the work of 23 crisis relief missions in hotspots such as the Gulf of Aden and Kosovo.
