Let them be reassured, it has never been one of our intentions to ban religion in society, but solely to protect the national education system from any conspicuous display of religious affiliation.

We shall say clearly that any symbol conspicuously displaying religious affiliation in school is prohibited.

France has a very important relationship with Germany. But that does not mean that we agree about everything or that two of our universities or companies are not going to compete.

The Republic is open and tolerant but also knows how and when to be firm and make its values respected.

I think that the proposed constitution is one of the European legal documents with the strongest social dimension I have seen since I began following European issues.

When I see the cultural diversity that exists today, I feel that we must defend it, and we need Europe, because otherwise we are going to live in a society with a single model, the Anglo-American model.

We must stress that the euro has been beneficial to the European Union because, otherwise, in this context of international turmoil, every country would have to devalue their currencies.