The outgoing EU Commissioner for the Internal Market Charlie McCreevy has praised President Nicolas Sarkozy and his colleagues in the French foreign service and finance ministry for what he describes as their "extraordinary deftness, and diplomatic and tactical coups" in Europe and the wider world.

In a speech to the Association of European Journalists in Dublin,(today Friday 18th December 2009) Mr McCreevy said that explaining the power politics at play within the European Union had been greatly helped by President Sarkozy's recent "coming out".

Referring to Mr Sarkozy's comments about the appointment of Mr McCreevy's successor as Internal Market Commissioner, Michel Barnier, being a defeat for Anglo Saxon capitalism, President Sarkozy had laid to rest once and for all the myth that EU Commissioners _"certainly French ones" – when they go to Brussels, are expected to lay aside their home Member State national interests and political priorities and to act exclusively in the community interest.

"What President Sarkozy's statement tells us is that like many of his fellow countrymen, he does not see the European Commission as a Commission for the advancement of European interests. He sees is it as a Commission for the advancement of French interests - He expects the French Commissioner and his staff in the Berlaymont to behave as though they were an annex to the Élysée Palace". "But" said Mr McCreevy "I think Mr Barnier is strong enough to resist such pressures".

Mr McCreevy went on to underline the extent of French influence now – both in Brussels and in the wider world - over financial regulation, supervision, and policy making:

"The influence of France in Brussels is impressive. People forget that the Brussels bureaucracy was designed by the French almost as a copy of how the administration in Paris works. This has over the years given the French a huge advantage in knowing how to pull the levers of power. And if you look around the Commission you will see that the French have been masters in getting their key people into some of the most powerful posts".

"As my successor as Commissioner for the Internal Market Mr Barnier will have responsibility for all European financial services, accounting, auditing, company law, corporate governance, services of general interest, patents, intellectual property rights, public procurement, and the transatlantic financial market dialogue. But the tactical positioning and influence of the French in all of these areas and other tangential areas stretches far beyond the European Commission" Mr McCreevy said:

"Another outstanding French man, Jean-Claude Trichet is Chairman of the European Central Bank; a French man, Dominique Strauss-Khan is in charge of the International Monetary Fund; a French man, Pascal Lamy, sits at the head of the World Trade Organization; Jacques de Larosière, the former Governor of the Bank of France, headed up the review on European Financial Supervision".

"And we are just over 12 months away from a French man taking over the chairmanship of the G20". Mr McCreevy said.

" So on all of the major issues on finance, services, internal and external trade, on transatlantic market dialogues, financial stability, EU monetary policy and central bank leadership, the French have scooped the pool - lock, stock, and barrel. I salute President Sarkozy and his colleagues in the French foreign service and finance ministry, for their extraordinary deftness, and diplomatic and tactical coups ".

Mr McCreevy praised the competitive strengths of France but warned about the need to uphold the principles of the Single Market:

"I am a great admirer of France, of many French political leaders, and of the competitive strengths that the country enjoys – their brands, their design, their fashion, their cuisine. I admire the way they organise their manufacturing, the competitive strengths they enjoy in engineering, in aerospace, in cuisine, in pharmaceuticals, in segments of the motor car industry, and much more.

Indeed there are few Member States with more inherent competitive strengths than France - and none with the style of the French", the Commissioner said.

Mr McCreevy went on to speak of the challenges he faced in fulfilling his responsibilities of ensuring that internal market rules were upheld and that the market for services was further opened up:

"Throughout my 5 years as Internal Market Commissioner, I have had a number of run-ins with Member States who had difficulty in complying with internal market rules. I had to fight to get the services directive adopted. Respect of the free movement of capital and public procurement rules has also been an issue".

Mr McCreevy warned that the internal market would crumble and die if the freedoms it provided were not defended and nurtured.

On the European Commission's role Mr McCreevy said that there was nothing more important for small Member States within the context of the European Union than ensuring that it was a Union for all its members and not just for its big ones, that the European Commission was independent and refused to dance solely to the large Member States' tunes.

"Keeping the Internal Market open is not just about enhancing the regulatory framework for the different parts of the internal market, it is also about vigorously pursuing infringements of single market rules - without fear or favour, without suspending or delaying procedures against favoured or large Member States. And it is about ensuring that negotiations between the Internal Market commissioner and third countries are geared to enhancing access in international financial and public procurement markets and ensuring that the proprietary nature of trade marks and innovations is respected" .

On protectionism Mr McCreevy said that there was no greater danger to the prospects of the world or of the European economy than the danger of protectionism.

"When times get tough protectionist tendencies come to the fore. And while protectionism will indeed protect jobs for a few months – maybe even a few years - over the medium term protectionism destroys jobs and destroys living standards. It destroys jobs because it invariably results in retaliatory action - and therefore the protection of one job leads, via retaliation, to the destruction of another. It destroys living standards because it diminishes competition and hence increases costs and reduces innovation. So in the end it is a "lose lose" policy prescription. Unless vigilantly guarded against, it risks turning a serious economic recession across Europe into a full scale economic slump".

Reflecting on his five years as EU Commissioner Mr McCreevy said that they had been a time of great achievement:

"Within the Internal Market, we opened up many of Europe's services markets, we breathed more competition and reduced costs for trading in Europe's securities markets. We have transformed the European payments market to attract new competitors in, to enable payment transactions to be made as fast across borders as within borders, and to facilitate more cross border banking and trade generally. We strengthened the provisions for remedies in public procurement to ensure fair play for tenderers and a better deal for taxpayers. We further liberalized Europe's postal markets so that competition to State monopolies will now seep down from the parcel market to the ordinary sized letter market. And we have considerably enhanced the patent system in Europe which will bring about a single EU patent system and establish a new patent Court in the EU. These things make a difference to people's lives- because they enhance competition, stimulate innovation which in turn reduce prices and costs for consumers, innovators, and businesses, enhancing efficiency, living standards, and choice.

And finally, we have been first among the major capital markets in the world to take real action to strengthen the capital and supervisory framework for financial institutions in response to the banking crisis. This has been no easy task: In global capital markets you need a level playing field in regulation and therefore our work has required extensive ongoing dialogue with other capital markets regulators – especially in the United States. But on a number of key issues, we have not waited. We have led - not least on credit rating agencies, securitization and amendments to capital requirements. Having taken the lead, I am glad to say that others are now following".