The French president gets the chair.

The presidency of the European Union’s Council, the EU’s main decision-making body, rotates every six months. EU countries take turns chairing and overseeing the Council’s agenda. The second half of 2008 is France’s turn. And so “Charlemagne”, the Europe affairs columnist at The Economist–which is evolving into a kind of Time or Newsweek for the entire West–tries to explain why Europe is “nervous” about Nicolas Sarkozy’s stint in the chair.