Mr. Sarkozy's Model

Is this how a real European president would behave?

AS 2008 DREW to a close, French President Nicolas Sarkozy basked in a continental wave of praise for his service in the European Union's presidency during the past six months. The frequent rotation of the job (which now moves on to the Czech Republic) and the difficulty of coordinating common positions among 27 member countries have typically made the European president a feckless figure on the international stage. But Mr. Sarkozy was a bold blur of activity. Filling the vacuum left by the exhausted Bush administration and frequently overstepping his nominal authority, the French leader brokered the cease-fire between Georgia and Russia, presided over Europe's unusually quick and coherent response to the financial crisis and, at a final summit last month, pushed the union to adopt an aggressive plan for reducing carbon emissions.

"Bold" and "brilliant" are among the adjectives being heaped on Mr. Sarkozy by European diplomats and pundits -- especially those of the French persuasion -- who have long dreamed of a European Union president who could meet his U.S., Russian and Chinese counterparts on more or less equal terms. Not coincidentally Mr. Sarkozy has been leading the push for the ratification of a new E.U. treaty that would end the six-month rotation in favor of an elected president with a 2 1/2 -year term. He's demonstrated that a capable and strong-willed politician in that job could have a greater impact than national European leaders acting separately.

Or has he? The credit Mr. Sarkozy has received seems mainly due to his boldness in strong-arming his European counterparts; his handling of other powers was decidedly less impressive. China dismissed Mr. Sarkozy after he met with the Dalai Lama. George W. Bush deflected his overreaching demand for a Group of Eight meeting in New York to "refound capitalism" to a 20-nation summit in Washington, which referred reform proposals to committees.

Most troubling, Mr. Sarkozy repeatedly showed weakness in handling Russia. After Moscow launched an invasion of Georgia in August, the E.U. president rushed to Moscow, filling a vacuum left by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But the loophole-ridden cease-fire he negotiated allowed Russian troops to remain in Georgian territory, where they have established a Cold War-style frontier. Mr. Sarkozy led the European Union in resolving that negotiations with Russia would be suspended until its forces withdrew to their prewar positions. But just weeks later he pushed for the contacts to be resumed even though that condition had not been met. He pandered to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a later meeting, declaring (in contravention of France's official position) that U.S. missile defense would "bring nothing to European security" and endorsing a Russian plan for a summit on European security.

A forceful and capable European president might indeed benefit the West. But given Mr. Sarkozy's record of issuing peremptory demands in Washington while kowtowing to Moscow, it's a good thing his term was limited to six months.