Think Tank Aims to Raise France’s Place as a Leader in Europe

PARIS, February 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Europe United founded the first
French Business Dialogue Group (FBDG) think tank and announced today that
invites more business leaders to join discussions concerning French business
in Europe.

Decisions taken by President Nicolas Sarkozy remain the main topic of the
discussions as the results turn out to be failures and ineffective plans that
caused both financial and social tensions, think tank members say.

The group is focused on five directions covering Economy, Social affairs,
Strategic partners, Country Image and Security in France.

“Germany’s GDP growth to 3.7%, against only 1.6% in France also marked
losing our place as a leader in Europe due to lack of labour-market reforms
that had an impact on its competitiveness. President Sarkozy is also
considered responsible for the ineffective reform the pension system,
altering the social contract and also raising the minimum retirement age from
60 to 62 without studying the impact on the real economy,” said Mr. Michel
Constantin, the leader of the dialogue group.

According to think tank members, President Sarkozy is considered
unresponsive when dealing with France’s traditional relations as he put
strains on the Franco-German and Franco-Romanian relations, both stable
economic partners of France – both Germany’s Angela Merkel and Romania’s
President Traian Basescu faced Sarkozy’s lack of diplomacy when dealing with
regional economic and social affairs.

The widely criticized repression on illegal Roma (gypsy) camps is
considered an election stunt as Sarkozy seeks a second term in 2012, French
businessmen say.

“France is now considered ambiguous by many partners as Sarkozy adopted
his security strategy. Decision to build Mistral battle-ships in Russia was
only one of the cases that affected French workers,” said Constantin while
describing security issues. “While promoting openness towards Russia and
Iran, with its nuclear ambitions, Sarkozy disabled France to become a
credible partner for its allies. The threat of terrorism remains high in
France and keeping troops in Afghanistan is considered another decision for
spending money with no strategy on the long term,” Constantin said.

FBDG is concerned with the fact that France perception worldwide changed
during President Sarkozy’s mandate affecting indirectly French brands mainly
because corruption, mass protests, strikes and extremist attitude towards
gypsy and Muslims. The act of forceful regulation on illegal Roma (gypsy)
camps put France on the first page of mainstream media as human-rights
organizations forwarded thousands of protests.

Think tank members conclude that President Sarkozy lost his connection
with the real economy, its traditional partners and the French business
interests.

About FBDG Think Tank at Europe United

Europe United is a non-profit organization aiming to develop
non-governmental projects that make an impact on the common market. The
association offers communication platforms for business groups and studies
regarding the economic issues in Europe.

Internet: http://www.europaunita.org .

SOURCE Europe United