"I grant you that at the moment we have a temporary absence of American leadership on the issue," Obama said, to laughter in the audience packed with French CEOs and former ministers. Obama also met former French president Francois Hollande, who hosted the UN's climate conference two years ago, and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo. In comments likely to raise eyebrows in Brussels, Obama said that although Europeans should not take for granted what the European project has accomplished since the end of World War Two, decision-making in the EU could be improved. "I think for example that the European Union needs to recognise that micro-managing every single aspect of life within Europe gets people frustrated," he said. "So there are ways of streamlining and improving the functioning of the European Union, but the European project itself, the Union itself is something that is worth preserving," he added.

Source: bd News24 December 02, 2017 19:30 UTC