PARIS (AFP) — France took the European Union helm on Tuesday with President Nicolas Sarkozy calling for profound changes in building Europe following the setback over Ireland's "No" to the bloc's key reform treaty.
"Something isn't right. Something isn't right at all," Sarkozy acknowledged during a television interview to mark the start of the six-month French EU presidency.
The magnitude of the task ahead was immediately underlined with an announcement by Polish President Lech Kaczynski that he would not sign the EU's Lisbon Treaty in the wake of its rejection by Irish voters.
"For the moment, the question of the treaty is pointless," Kaczynski told the daily Dziennik newspaper.
The decision puts Kaczynski alongside his Czech and German counterparts in seeking to delay final ratification of the charter, which is aimed at streamlining EU decision-making.
It was another blow for Sarkozy who had been hoping to lead the European Union into a new era of strength and unity, before the Irish vote last month plunged the 27-member bloc into its current crisis.
"There have been errors in the way that Europe has been built," Sarkozy said in his interview on Monday night.
The European project has become a source of concern to citizens who are wondering whether national institutions can better protect them from the ill effects of globalisation than European ones, he said.
Calling such thinking a "step backward," Sarkozy said: "We must therefore profoundly change our way of building Europe."
The energetic leader who proclaimed "France is back in Europe" after winning elections last year is expected to spend much of his time as EU leader working to salvage the Lisbon Treaty.
The French EU presidency's "first priority is to find a way to contain the problem to the Irish", said Sarkozy, adding that EU countries must continue ratifying the key charter.
"We musn't rush, but at the same time, we don't have much time," he said, recalling that EU leaders had set the June 2009 European parliament elections as the deadline for approval of the Lisbon Treaty.
Sarkozy is due to travel to Ireland on July 11 to hear first hand the concerns of Irish voters, a day after he presents the priorities of the French EU presidency in an address to the EU parliament in Strasbourg.
EU leaders are expected to re-assess the fate of the Lisbon Treaty at a summit in October during which Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen is to present his ideas on the way forward.
Emphasising that the EU must address day-to-day concerns, Sarkozy said he would work for a Europe-wide cut in the value-added tax on restaurant bills and for a ceiling on the oil VAT to help consumers cope with soaring crude prices.
Sarkozy's proposal on the oil tax has received a cool reception from EU leaders, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel arguing that cutting the VAT would do nothing to encourage a reduction in consumption.
But the European Commission agreed to consider the proposals and Sarkozy is due to present a report in October.
Sarkozy also said he wanted to give tax breaks to encourage the green economy, from construction of energy-efficient houses to buying cars that are less polluting.
France has defined four priorities for its EU stint -- immigration, defence, energy and the environment, and agriculture -- and one of its most high-profile projects is the July 13 launch of a new Union for the Mediterranean.
The union will bring together European countries with states from the Mediterranean rim including Israel and its Arab neighbours to develop cooperation.
On the first day of the French EU presidency, Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon are to hold working meetings with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.
A ceremony is to be held at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris later Tuesday.
A formal handover ceremony of the EU presidency from Slovenia to France was held on Monday, with Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel telling his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner that the union was "in rather good shape."
"You say it's in good shape," Kouchner remarked. "Well, yes, let's rather say it is in average shape."
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