French charge

The politician considered the most serious candidate for the next President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, called for policy unity during his visit to Poland last week.

The French Foreign Affairs Minister said that one of his aims is to persuade the EU to conduct a common energy and Eastern policy.

The comments followed a high-level meeting with Prime Minister Marek Belka and the head of the Interior Ministry, Ryszard Kalisz. The French minister said Poland is one of the EU's five strongest members and it should participate in creating the union's common policy.

Sarkozy also defended France's EU contribution, saying it cannot increase its funding if it wants to cut its budget deficit.

A fortnight ago the European Commission called on France to work harder on cutting its budget deficit this year to keep it below the eurozone's ceiling of three percent of gross domestic product.

France and some other richer EU members are against the Commission's plans to increase members' contributions to the EU in discussions on the bloc's 2007-2013 budget.

"The situation would be schizophrenic, in the morning they would ask us to cut spending and in the afternoon they would want us to pay more to the EU budget," Sarkozy said.

France has broken the eurozone's fiscal deficit ceiling each year since 2002 and has pushed for a revamp of the currency club's rules to give more breathing room to budget offenders.

"Europe is right to tell us to reduce this [France's budget] deficit and spend less. Europe is right to demand this of us but cannot at the same time demand us to increase our dues," Sarkozy added. (Reuters)