“Europe wants the summit before the end of the year. Europe wants it. Europe demands it. Europe will get it.” So said Nicolas Sarkozy – president of France, and (until January) of the European Union – before jetting off to Washington over the weekend. There he persuaded President George W. Bush to agree to an international summit dedicated, says Mr Sarkozy, to nothing less than “re-founding the capitalist system”.
This trip to Washington was like a French fantasy come true: a successful attempt to push the US president into discussing global governance and the taming of capitalism. Now that visions of collapsing banks and soup kitchens are receding, the Europeans are enjoying the global financial crisis.
Mr Sarkozy’s energetic confidence has been bolstered by the conventional wisdom that Europe has had a good crisis. After a period of disorder, EU leaders pulled things together and came up with a plan that rescued the banks and restored a modicum of confidence.
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