He's not wrong to want a smoother political process for the European Union, but Merkel is not wrong either for wanting more centralized budget control within the EU. Eventually both have to happen if it's going to work. "If" being the key word.
While conceding that Europe's debt crisis and the collapse of confidence in the currency meant France had to surrender some of its sovereignty under a new punitive regime of fiscal discipline, Sarkozy's focus appeared to be on a new deal enabling the leaders of the 17 eurozone countries to strike political bargains among themselves.This problem is a major crisis for the EU but there is nothing that suggests key issues such as the eurozone staying in one piece will be resolved in the near term.
Eurozone governments would need to forfeit their rights of veto in policy-making, he said, under a new system of eurogroup qualified majority voting.
Sarkozy failed to flesh out his ideas but his initiative appeared to run counter to Berlin's plans for a much more rigorous monetary union in which participating governments would surrender ultimate control of tax and spending policies to a centralised EU body armed with intrusive powers of scrutiny and dealing out automatic penalties to fiscal sinners.
