French foreign minister wants new Europe

France’s new Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Thursday his priority would be to deal with the European debt crisis and that he wanted to push for a “different Europe”.

“The priority is to disentangle the crisis in Europe, while at the same time making progress on the most urgent issues,” he told news channel BFMTV.

Fabius, a former prime minister well known as a leading member of the “no” campaign during the 2005 referendum that saw France reject a European Constitution, insisted he was a committed European.

“I am profoundly European but we need a different Europe, a Europe that is much more focused on jobs,” he said.

Socialist President Francois Hollande’s new government was unveiled Wednesday and was to hold its first cabinet session later Thursday.