The European Union's 50-year-old commitment to "undistorted competition" has been scrapped from a list of the bloc's objectives, in a French coup that lawyers argue could undermine Brussels' fight against protectionism and illegal state aid.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, secured the change on the eve of an already tense Brussels summit. He demanded the change to allay concerns in his country that the EU has become too "Anglo-Saxon".