French Freedom Fries

Nicolas Sarkozy:

I believe in free trade but in free trade that is controlled, regulated, where the state intervenes to compensate against social and ecological dumping.

Quite obviously, this would not be 'free' trade. I can say that I believe in freedom as long as it is controlled and regulated, but few would consider it real freedom.

This is not to say that Sarkozy's ideas are necessarily bad. I call the score three parts bad, one part good.

Sarkozy talks about "protection" from globalisation, which is the wrong approach. Globalisation should be confronted by European countries through smart policies and improved through negotiations that include social and environmental standards.

Sarkozy's repeated calls for political control over the ECB are ridiculous and are wasting his reputation in Europe. Daniela Schwarzer has a good piece on the matter on Eurozone Watch.

Sarkozy's statement that Turkey can't become a member of the EU depends upon a narrow definition of Europe and neglects the growing common interest and commonalities of Europe and Turkey.

However, I support the French calls, repeated by Sarkozy, to end 'social' and 'fiscal' dumping inside the EU. There is a growing threat of economically damaging jurisdictional competition -- beggar thy neighbour policies. To curb this we need more fiscal harmonisation and more social policies in the EU.