TOULON, France: President Nicolas Sarkozy, under pressure from a spiralling euro zone debt crisis five months before a presidential election, told France on Thursday the euro bloc needs closer and stricter coordination of national budgets to survive.
Seeking to reassure the public ahead of a Franco-German push to redraw the European Union's founding treaty, Sarkozy promised that reforming Europe would mean closer inter-governmental cooperation, not handing control to a supra-national body.
"The reform of Europe is not a march towards supra-nationality," he said in a speech to some 5,000 supporters in the Mediterranean port of Toulon. "The integration of Europe will go the inter-govermental way because Europe needs to make strategic political choices."
Sarkozy said he would meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris on Monday to push ahead with joint proposals for a new EU treaty to fix flaws in the Maastricht Treaty and create a true economic government for the bloc.
He said France and every other euro zone country needed to enshrine a budget-balancing "golden rule" in their constitutions, to force stricter fiscal discipline as the bloc strives to reform itself or get left behind.
He also said the European Central Bank must stay independent and decide for itself when to act against the risk of deflation.
"Europe is no longer a choice. It is a necessity. But the crisis has revealed its weaknesses and its contradictions. Europe must be rethought," Sarkozy said.
"Let us not hide it, Europe may be swept away by the crisis if it doesn't get a grip, if it doesn't change," he said, warning that a collapse of the euro would make France's debt unmanageable and wipe out people's savings.
The location of Toulon was symbolic as it was in the same town that Sarkozy railed, after the Sept. 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, against the dangers of unfettered capitalism. (Reuters)
Seeking to reassure the public ahead of a Franco-German push to redraw the European Union's founding treaty, Sarkozy promised that reforming Europe would mean closer inter-governmental cooperation, not handing control to a supra-national body.
"The reform of Europe is not a march towards supra-nationality," he said in a speech to some 5,000 supporters in the Mediterranean port of Toulon. "The integration of Europe will go the inter-govermental way because Europe needs to make strategic political choices."
Sarkozy said he would meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris on Monday to push ahead with joint proposals for a new EU treaty to fix flaws in the Maastricht Treaty and create a true economic government for the bloc.
He said France and every other euro zone country needed to enshrine a budget-balancing "golden rule" in their constitutions, to force stricter fiscal discipline as the bloc strives to reform itself or get left behind.
He also said the European Central Bank must stay independent and decide for itself when to act against the risk of deflation.
"Europe is no longer a choice. It is a necessity. But the crisis has revealed its weaknesses and its contradictions. Europe must be rethought," Sarkozy said.
"Let us not hide it, Europe may be swept away by the crisis if it doesn't get a grip, if it doesn't change," he said, warning that a collapse of the euro would make France's debt unmanageable and wipe out people's savings.
The location of Toulon was symbolic as it was in the same town that Sarkozy railed, after the Sept. 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, against the dangers of unfettered capitalism. (Reuters)