Sarkozy addresses MPs and peers

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has addressed both Houses of Parliament during his first state visit to the UK.

Sarkozy paid tribute to Britain's long-standing democratic credentials, embodied by Parliament, in his address to MPs and peers.

 

He said France and the UK should work closely to address new challenges, just as they had in the 20th century since the signing of the entente cordiale.

 

Nuclear power, climate change and international relations were areas where the two countries could work even more closely in the future, he said.

 

"For the president of the French republic, it is a signal honour indeed to address both houses of the British Parliament," he said.

 

"It is indeed in these walls which house your chambers that modern political life was born. Without your Parliament, parliamentary democracy would never have existed in this shape anywhere in the world."

 

He went on to say that Britain had shown that parliamentary democracy was "the best bulwark against tyranny".

 

"This Parliament arose and stood through a struggle for the protection of individual freedoms, and this is the lesson that you, the British, have taught the rest of the world," he said.

 

"This Parliament, your Parliament, was the first anywhere in the world to achieve the results of parliamentary democracy. The result of this is that you represent the touchstone of everything our democracies stand for."

 

Brown

 

Speaking during prime minister's questions ahead of Sarkozy's address, Gordon Brown told MPs he hoped to use talks with the president to "tighten up controls" at borders to help tackle illegal immigration.

 

"I believe that our talks in the next few days will be very constructive," he said.

 

"I also believe, given the present global financial turbulence and the fact that in one country in the last day interest rates have moved to 15 per cent, it is right that France and Britain agree measures that we can put to the international institutions."

The measures would help to strengthen economic stability, deal with problems of lack of transparency in financial information and "make sure that the European economies together can continue to grow", said Brown.

"That is only possible because we want a Britain at the heart of Europe and not detached from Europe," he argued.

Sarkozy wants to use the trip to reinvigorate cross-channel relations and will seek deals on defence and nuclear power.

He is offering to put France back into NATO's integrated military structure, from which General de Gaulle withdrew it in 1966 in return for a greater EU defence capability.

Despite Gordon Brown's stronger Atlanticist instincts, Sarkozy will seek to persuade him that that NATO and a European force can go hand in hand.

France is expected to use its six-month presidency of the EU starting in July to press the case.

With Iraq no longer so divisive and with Sarkozy much more pro-American than predecessor Jacques Chirac, it is thought that this visit will mark new levels of Anglo-French co-operation particularly as Franco-German relations are currently less good.

"It has been long enough now that we have not been at war, that we are not wrangling," he told the BBC ahead of his arrival.

"Perhaps we can move from being cordial to being friendly - that's my first message.

"My second message is that this friendship shouldn't simply be a matter of principle.

"I want [it] fleshed out by concrete projects on the economy, immigration, security, defence."

Co-operation

During a summit meeting at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium on Thursday, the prime minister and president will also talk about greater co-operation of nuclear power, in which the French have taken the lead since they decided a generation ago to go 80 per cent nuclear in their power generation (compared to about 20 per cent by the British).

There is also likely to be an agreement to help each other on illegal immigration.

Sarkozy said he wanted Britain and France to work "hand in glove" and pointed to his role in closing down the controversial Sangatte immigrant camp while French home affairs minister.

"Whoever the British leader may be he will need others, other Europeans," he said.

"And how can we do without your strong economy, your language which is the most spoken language throughout the world - do without your defence, which is the most significant in Europe?"

"I want a new Franco-British brotherhood," he added.

Meanwhile Sarkozy has added his backing to Britain's condemnation of Chinese aggression in Tibet by suggesting he may boycott this year's Olympic Games in Beijing.

He said that "all options were open" at this stage, refusing to rule out a boycott.

"Our Chinese friends must understand the worldwide concern that there is about the question of Tibet and I will adapt my response to the evolutions in the situation that will come, I hope, as rapidly as possible," the president stated.