As the flags of France and the European Union flew side by side, on the first day of Paris’ Presidency of the bloc, French leader Nicholas Sarkozy admitted his six month term would not be easy.

Poland’s President had said he wouldn’t sign the Lisbon reform treaty, even when the Polish Parliament had already ratified it.

The document was rejected by Ireland last month.

As the European Commission President and Nicholas Sarkozy spoke of tackling Europe’s problems together, the latter went into damage control.

“I can’t imagine that the President who himself signed at the base of the document in Brussels, then at Lisbon, can call his own signature into question,” President Sarkozy said. “It wasn’t Prime Minister Tusk who negotiated and signed, it was the President himself.”

The continuing furore over Poland quite eclipsed the content of their talks, which EC President Barroso said, had focussed on a joint energy policy, better youth training and Alzheimers.

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