President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday vowed to come forward with new initiatives to overhaul the European Union after leading his party to a comfortable victory in European parliamentary elections.

Mr Sarkozy claimed credit for his centre-right UMP party’s success, saying in a statement from the Elysée palace that the way French voters cast their votes showed “their recognition for the work accomplished during the French president of the European Union (last year) and their support for the efforts undertaken by the government to bring to an end an unprecedented global crisis”.