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’Every man for himself!’ was the reaction of all the major powers of the time to the financial crisis of 1929. Each country shut itself away to protect its agriculture, its industry, its currency and its jobs. The currency war, followed by the trade war and then the industrial war, eventually led to war, pure and simple.

This time, political leaders have demonstrated a remarkable sense of calm. It may have taken the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September to realise the true extent of the crisis that had already been growing for a full year, but three weeks were all that were needed for Europeans and Americans to agree on a number of large-scale, coordinated and complementary rescue plans. Moreover, at the initiative of the European Union, on 15 November, emerging countries will be engaged in the search for lasting global solutions. This is the challenge facing the G20 meeting, which has come about as a result of the personal determination and political leadership of Nicolas Sarkozy in his capacity as President of the European Council. So, are we saved?

Closer inspection reveals that the choice between global solidarity and the ‘every man for himself’ scenario has not yet been made. It all depends on how the rescue plans will be implemented. For the drastic remedies that are required to save the global financial system have side effects which present an equal number of formidable political problems. Let us mention just two. Lire la suite…

Pour


accéder aux travaux de la session plénière du 20 au 23 octobre 2008 à


Strasbourg, cliquez

ici

rnr


nLe 21 octobre, Nicolas Sarkozy est intervenu en séance plénière. Vous


pouvez voir la vidéo de son discours en cliquant

ici

et lire la version écrite en


cliquant

là

.


A cette occasion, Alain Lamassoure a publié un

communiqué de


presse

.

‘A Europe that protects.’ This was Nicolas Sarkozy’s slogan during his presidential campaign. Europe was built to protect us forever from fratricidal war. This is now a given. Today, we expect it to protect us from the global storms of this new century, as fascinating as they are perilous.

This summer’s major crises have given the President of the European Council an opportunity to translate his words into deeds.

On 8 August, Russian troops crossed the Georgian border. It was the first time that an independent country had been invaded by a major neighbouring country since 1991, when Saddam Hussein sought to annex Kuwait. On 12 August, the President of the European Council was in Moscow, and then in Tbilisi. The Russians stopped 40 km from the Georgian capital. Two months later, they were back where they had started. In four days, the 27 European governments had managed to unite behind Nicolas Sarkozy in order to safeguard Georgia’s independence.

On 15 September, the collapse of Lehmann Brothers triggered the financial crisis. Less than a month later, Europe adopted its rescue plan, no less quickly than the Americans. In just one week, the energetic French President successively met Europe’s four largest financial powers, the 15 euro-zone countries and the 27 Heads of Government before going to meet George Bush at Camp David and then the Chinese in Beijing. A radical remedy has been used to beat the credit crisis, and a radical reform of financial capitalism is under way. Lire la suite…