Nicolas Sarkozy – the view from Britain

"He's in a very difficult position," said Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform. "For the first time in the EU's history, France isn't pulling the strings." Germany, Grant said, may have "won most of the key arguments" on a more rules-based system. But as Niblett remarks, Sarkozy has successfully leveraged German anxiety over the fate of the euro into "some progress on longstanding French goals: greater European economic governance, harmonisation of corporate taxes, reining in the worst execesses of the financial services sector, maybe a Robin Hood tax. In that sense, yes, he's a statesman."