Although he holds the rotating presidency, Mr. Sarkozy appeared to be speaking beyond his mandate because the bloc has little power over defense decisions.
A majority of the 25 countries in the enlarged European Union, and especially the new members from the old Soviet bloc, see little to inspire allegiance to, or emulation of, France and Germany, a self-appointed leadership pair that can guarantee neither the continent's economic growth nor its security.
Given his map of the world as grands blocs with little in common except an urgent need to avoid collision, and given the tensions among them now — with America, to his mind, playing the rogue bloc — he clearly feels that France's, and indeed Europe's, historical role will be to mediate those tensions.
Many Brussels insiders see little chance of repairing the bloc while France and Germany are preoccupied with elections in 2017.
Greece and other, more "peripheral" members of the 16-nation bloc would gain little, he said, because their export sectors were too small to make much difference.
Since much of the government's economic policy was opposed by the Yavlinsky-Boldyrev-Lukin bloc, there was little prospect that radical legislation would be passed.
In this scenario, the Union would be increasingly marginalized, seen by emerging powers like China and India as little more than a trading bloc and by the United States as having ever less relevance.
It has also crystallized worries that while countries need to meet democratic standards in order to join the bloc, there is little to restrain them once they are full members.
Britain has less than six months to go before the country leaves the 28-member state bloc, after a little over half the country voted to withdraw membership from the European Union in a 2016 referendum.
Then, a little after 2PM the black bloc made its way into Syntagma.
