Here Come The French!

On the plus side, didn't the Eiffel Tower look great! Another good sign was Sarkozy's hour long address to the French people on television about his ambitions for the French Presidency. Can anyone imagine Gordon doing that? or even anyone watching?

One thing is for certain, they won't cock it up as badly as Blair did to the UK Presidency - still regarded as one of the worst efforts in all time, so you can imagine there are some pretty strong contenters for that miserable title.

Naturally he's opening with the "I will restore trust in the EU" line, an ambition more than a promise but it does show that he realises that the disconnection between the EU and its citizens is a huge problem. Has he any answers?

You bet. But that is going to need a back to square one approach and not a series of patch-up treaties. It's going to need fundamental reform, not just of EU institutions but of how the member states run Europe AND use it as a convenient excuse for any of their negotiating failures or similar.

How can Sarkozy 'profoundly change' whilst keeping the agricultural subsidies the same? And as for the 60,000 EU Defence Force, I hope they've learned something from this little incident.