Sarkozy: It All Comes Down to France and Germany

In a speech Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy confronted the economic quagmire otherwise known as the eurozone and declared that France and Germany would be the key players in Europe’s rehabilitation. Also important in Sarkozy’s scheme was the idea that stricter regulations would help ward off further catastrophe, a notion that seems anathema to many U.S. lawmakers.  —KA

BBC:

Mr Sarkozy said Europe’s response to the debt crisis had not been fast enough.

He said Germany and France had agreed that there should be a new European treaty to govern the relations between countries.

However, he rejected German suggestions that national budgets could be approved and regulated in Brussels.

The BBC Paris correspondent, Christian Fraser, says the French president’s speech was a sombre assessment of the eurozone crisis and an acknowledgement that eurozone leaders had not worked quickly enough to solve the problems.

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AP / Michael Probst

The Euro sculpture stands in front of the European Central Bank in downtown Frankfurt, Germany, last month.