Freeing hostages from Somali pirates, brokering peace with Russia, even persuading European governments to put more helicopters into joint defence efforts. There is more plausibility to all these projects, which have occupied a busy two months in the life of Nicolas Sarkozy, than there is in his plan for a summit on Saturday to thrash out a common European response to the financial crisis.

The French President has invited only the leaders of Britain, Germany and Italy to Paris. Even so, that has revealed sharp differences in approach, making nonsense of his desire to emulate the grand response of the US. As it should. Jean-Claude Trichet, the President of the European Central Bank, dismissed the ambition in remarking: “We are in Europe in a framework which is not a political federation. We do not have a federal budget so the idea that we could do the same as what is done on the other side of the Atlantic doesn’t fit with the structure of Europe.”

No European government is going to use its taxpayers’ money to save the banks of other countries. Nor are they likely to agree to much common regulation, and Ireland’s sudden decision to guarantee all bank deposits has probably scuppered any slight chance. That move, which few will want to copy, makes a nonsense of the “level playing field”, the eternal quest of European competition policy.

Trichet is right, although that will not put Sarkozy off so tantalisingly dramatic a meeting. The French six-month presidency of the European Union has had more than its share of shocks, with the Russian-Georgian conflict and now the paralysis of financial markets. The French military rescue of hostages held by pirates added to the reputation of Sarkozy, as did his brokering of an imperfect ceasefire in South Ossetia, despite an abusive reception in Moscow. He might have more success in trying to tease out common European interests on defence than he does on finance.

The striking point about the dislike of the bailout by the US Congress is what it shows about the resentment of Wall Street in Main Street. The $700 billion (£398 billion) of the bailout is of the same order as the sums the US has spent on the Iraq War. That conflict has also cost the lives of more than 4,000 US troops and failed to meet all targets and expectations, even if violence has now dropped. Even though the Bush Administration is now deeply unpopular, the support of many Americans – and Congress – held up for an astonishingly long time. They were prepared to buy the Bush claim that the war was a necessary response to an enemy of the US. Compare that to the kneejerk rejection that US taxpayers should not have to rescue bankers.

In Europe, grand notions of a combined force will still get nowhere. The call by Sarkozy for European countries to make more helicopters available, to help to protect ships against Somali pirates and to monitor Georgian territory, are the kind of precise plans that just might. European governments are now alert to threats from Russia, even if they have very different ideas of what to do.

Europe may well find more common cause in dealing with Russia than it does in finance. We have already seen that the response there will be country first, Europe nowhere.

Times Recommends

• Can I be complimentary, my dear Watson?
• Hardliners realise Britain is a soft touch
• The jaw-dropping truth about Gordon