Paris pressed on budget promise
France was urged to stick to its promise to balance its books by 2010 amid fears that Europe is failing to use the economic recovery to restore order to its public finances.
French parliamentary elections
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President Nicolas Sarkozy was forced into an awkward ministerial reshuffle after his UMP party fared worse than expected in parliamentary elections
| Coalition | Seats |
|---|---|
| UMP & allies | 346 |
| Socialists & allies | 231 |
Sarkozy and Merkel at odds over ECB
The French president has defended his right to criticise the central bank’s monetary policy, comparing it unfavourably with the activism of the US Federal Reserve
France blocks Turkey eurozone talks
The European Union is to extend membership talks with Turkey to two new policy areas or “chapters” but France has blocked talks on a third: economic and monetary union.
Sarkozy tells EU how to run industry
Nicolas Sarkozy, fresh from helping to hammer out a new EU treaty, has defended France’s activist industrial approach and called on European partners to follow his example.
Sarkozy to benefit from spending surge
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, should be able to count on a surge in consumer spending and a faster rate of job creation this year.
Sarkozy takes tax policy to EU ministers
Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, says he will attend next month’s meeting of European finance ministers to explain his tax-cutting strategy and argue for a more co-ordinated economic policy in the eurozone.
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Comment and Analysis
Europe must give Sarkozy some fiscal leeway
The new French government’s intentions raise issues that go far beyond bean-counting and a legalistic view of the pact, writes Charles Wyplosz.
New leaders’ chemistry crucial for EU
Brown and Sarkozy’s relationship crucial
Analysis
A dynamic Sarkozy profits from liberal preoccupation
Could the French president’s triumph at the European summit presage a retreat from market reform?
Economy
Sarkozy told to lay off ECB
European finance ministers warned Nicolas Sarkozy to stop undermining the European Central Bank by blaming it for France’s economic problems.
EADS has high hopes for US expansion
Nicolas Sarkozy’s victory in France’s presidential election this week could help to open up the US defence market for EADS, the Franco-German aerospace group, according to co-chief executive Louis Gallois.
Sarkozy victory fuels investor optimism
Investors cautiously welcomed Nicolas Sarkozy’s election as France’s president, as economists focused on whether his victory would translate into a majority in June’s parliamentary elections.
France braced for stiff dose of Thatcherism
The new French president, like the former UK prime minister, has promised to reward the hard-working and crack down on shirkers, writes Gideon Rachman.
Business under Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy certainly has a mandate. But a mandate for what? There seems to be a desire for change, but whether Mr Sarkozy will deliver it is debatable.
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