Majority of French pessimistic about their country's EU presidency

Although France has been preparing its EU presidency for months and has made no secret of its ambitious plans for its chairmanship of the bloc, no more than one French person in three believes Paris will be able to boost Europe after Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon treaty.

Asked if they trust their president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to re-launch Europe after the shock of the Irish No on 12 June, 57 percent of the French responded negatively and 31 percent positively, according to a poll publ...