Sarkozy wants to 'protect' Europeans

|PIC1|President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged on Monday to "protect" European Union citizens during France's six-month tenure of the EU presidency in a bid to make the bloc more relevant to everyday life, but offered few new measures.

Sarkozy's plan to make the next six months a model of European effectiveness was dealt a blow by Irish voters' rejection of a treaty to overhaul the bloc's institutions, holding up the pact which was supposed to take effect on January 1.

In a one-hour live televised interview on the eve of taking over the presidency, Sarkozy said he would seek to address voters' concerns by pushing for tax breaks on products ranging from petrol to green goods and restaurants with table service.

"Things are not going well. Things are not going well at all," Sarkozy told France 3 television.

"Europe worries people and, worse than that, I find, little by little our fellow citizens are asking themselves if after all the national level isn't better equipped to protect them than the European level," he said, adding that was not the case.

Irish voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty earlier this month for reasons ranging from the fact the text is incomprehensible to concerns it would bring higher taxes or legalised abortion.

"We have to think about how we can make this Europe a means to protect Europeans in their daily lives ... We must not be afraid of this word - 'protection'," he said, adding that citizens wanted to be shielded from the risks of globalisation.

Sarkozy lobbied unsuccessfully at a summit of European leaders this month for a cap on value added tax (VAT) on petrol to cushion the blow of soaring oil prices that have sparked protests across the 27-nation bloc and elsewhere.

ANOTHER IRISH VOTE?

Sarkozy and the EU executive, the European Commission, are due to present a report on the options available to tackle record oil prices at the next summit in October.

The French president said he would also push for VAT to be lowered to 5.5 percent on energy-efficient house building and, in a bid to help small businesses, continue a drive to bring the VAT rate charged in restaurants to the same level.

Oil prices were also to blame, he said, for the high rate of inflation, which is running at a record 4 percent in the euro zone and has prompted the European Central Bank (ECB) to signal that it is prepared to raise interest rates on July 3.

In a renewed swipe at the ECB, Sarkozy said raising rates would do nothing to tackle the price of oil and the central bank should seek to preserve growth as well.

"You can double, triple interest rates and that will not bring a decrease in the price of a barrel of Brent," he said.

EU leaders meeting in October are due to hear from Ireland's prime minister on how to move forward after the "No" vote.

Officials say the only plan in the works is to make the Irish vote again but politicians have avoided saying so in public. Sarkozy will travel to Dublin on July 11 for talks.

Asked if they should vote again, he said: "I don't want to say it like that because it would give the impression of forcing their hand."

He did, however, suggest that the problem might still be solved in time for the European elections in June 2009.

"I will see with them what it is appropriate to do. We must take our time, but we have to know under which regime we will organise the 2009 European elections," he said.