M@C: Sarkozy all talk no action : Awaiting the Sarkozy show at Copenhagen Copenhagen climate conference - by Siegfried Mortkowitz

For the complete report from Monsters and Critics click on this link

Listening to him in the run-up to this month's UN climate conference in Copenhagen, French President Nicolas Sarkozy seems to be more in his element than the average world leader at such international conferences on global threats. In November, he stood on the steps of the Elysee Palace with Brazilian President Luiz Inacia Lula da Silva and proclaimed that the two of them had agreed on a plan to save the world from global warming. Then, trailing press releases like confetti, he traveled to Brazil and the Commonwealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago to trumpet the proposal.But this was just typically Sarkozian. As head of the European Union during the economic crisis, he convoked numerous summits, which he approached with a messiah's zeal and a tap dancer's sensitivity to his audience.

Before every G8 or G20 summit on the crisis, he loudly proclaimed his intention to save the world from bad capitalism and threatened to walk out of the meeting if it did not come up with concrete solutions. Sarkozy never walked out, and capitalism remains pretty much what it was before the crisis. Now, that same table-thumping advocacy and media awareness has accompanied Sarkozy's approach to Copenhagen.

Note EU-Digest: It's called - all talk,no action.