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.

I tell fundamentalists that there is no question of them attacking our Republic's foundations.

I believe that transatlantic relations are very important and that President Bush's visit to Brussels, in a few days, will have a major impact on that.

A country like France now does two-thirds of its trade within the euro zone.

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 Europe we are in the process of building is the Europe of the 21st century; it's not the Europe of the 20th century.

We believe that the European Union is facing a truly historic choice.