Sarkozy forever? EU uneasy on leadership bid: Paul Taylor

-- Paul Taylor is a Reuters columnist, the opinions expressed are his own --

By Paul Taylor

PARIS (Reuters) - Not content with a temporary role as first consul, Nicolas Sarkozy wants to be emperor of Europe. That, at least, is the way it looks to many of his EU partners.

The energetic French president has relished his term in the European Union's rotating presidency so much -- playing fireman during the Georgia war and the global financial crisis -- that he is loath to cast off the mantle at midnight on December 31.

His aides are working actively on ways to perpetuate his European leadership into 2009 and beyond, using the euro zone, NATO, the new Mediterranean Union, Middle East diplomacy and a continuing mediation role with Russia and Georgia as levers.

The fact that Paris hands over the six-month presidency to the Czech Republic, an EU newcomer with a divided government, a Eurosceptical president and no seat in the euro zone, may help Sarkozy's bid to extend his influence.

But apart from the implicit challenge to EU institutions, the problem is the economic policy direction in which he wants to lead Europe, taking advantage of the credit crisis and recession to push old-fashioned French "dirigisme" (state direction of the economy).

The main obstacle is the reluctance of Germany, the EU's biggest economy and France's traditional partner in leadership.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is deeply suspicious of Sarkozy's efforts to build greater euro zone economic governance and irked by his effort to position himself as the "go to" man in Europe for incoming U.S. President Barack Obama.

She sees his calls for an "economic government of Europe" as a challenge to the independence of the European Central Bank and a recipe for protectionism and government meddling in industry.

"Merkel is always polite and the Germans don't like to be troublemakers. But at some point soon, they are going to say: 'Enough!'," says Ulrike Guerot, head of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"SUPER SARKO"

"Super Sarko" has called a record number of summits during his hyper-active EU presidency, traveling twice to Moscow to broker a ceasefire and a Russian pullback in Georgia, and twice to Washington to press for a global financial summit and more international regulation in the credit crisis.

He has set ambitious economic agendas for the EU and the G20 grouping of industrialized and emerging powers, although the results have been far more modest.

"Sarkozy has shaken things up, not just out of personal ambition but out of a belief that Europe needs strong political leadership to overcome its complex routine and face up to the challenges of our times," says Jean-Dominique Giuliani, president of the Robert Schuman Foundation think-tank.

Giuliani described the French leader in a recent book as "a European in a big hurry," determined to put France back in the pilot's seat of EU integration and willing to use unorthodox methods to achieve his objective.