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Strasbourg: French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday said he would propose a solution for the European Union's stalled reform treaty by the end of the year after consulting with Ireland's leaders.
Irish voters rejected the Lisbon treaty, intended to adapt the 27-nation bloc's creaking institutions for further enlargement, in a referendum last month, plunging the EU into a new crisis of confidence.
Proposal
"The French presidency will propose a method and, I hope, a solution either in October or in December," Sarkozy told the European Parliament as he set out the goals of France's six-month presidency of the EU.
He added that without reformed institutions, the EU could not enlarge beyond its current 27 members, even though it would continue negotiations with Croatia, the next candidate in line. Sarkozy said he would visit Ireland on July 21 to sound out political leaders on a way forward for the treaty.
He also used his keynote speech to assert the right, despite objections from Germany, to question monetary policy decisions of the European Central Bank (ECB) as part of a debate on the best economic policy for Europe.
"No one has the right to prevent a debate, a useful debate, on the question of what is the right economic strategy, what is the right monetary strategy, or the right exchange rate or the right interest rate strategy," he said.
"We are not calling into question the independence of the ECB if we ask whether it is reasonable for interest rates to go up to 4.25 per cent when the Americans are at two per cent," the French leader said. The ECB raised its main interest rate last week to fight resurgent inflation, although Sarkozy and some other politicians had warned the move could harm the euro zone's flagging growth.
Sarkozy said France faced a twin challenge in its six-month presidency: "How do we get Europe out of the crisis it is in? How can we avoid immobility?"
He vowed to address citizens' concerns by giving priority to adopting strict measures to fight climate change and promote renewable energy sources, a pact on managed immigration, the development of better European defence capabilities and a modernisation of the European Union's common agricultural policy.
But he made clear a world trade deal and farm reform should not lead to a fall in EU output.
"Is it reasonable to ask the EU to reduce its agricultural production when the world has never needed food so much? I don't think it is reasonable. This is not about French agriculture, it is about common sense," he said.
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