French President Nicolas Sarkozy said today that an end of the euro common currency would signal the end of Europe.

“Europe held strong, Europe protected us” in the economic crisis, Sarkozy said in the traditional New Year’s Eve radio and television address. “The end of the euro would mean the end of Europe. I will oppose this backlash with all my strength,” he said. He added that the 27-country union often didn’t react “quickly enough” in the past year’s crisis.

Estonia, a Baltic country and former Soviet republic, will become the 17th member of the euro area as of tomorrow.

France will hold the rotating chairmanship both of the Group of 20 nations and of the Group of Eight in 2011. Sarkozy said France will “defend the idea of a more regulated world” and defend “its interest.”

The G-20 is seeking to reduce trade imbalances that are blamed in part for the 2008 financial crisis and remodel the global monetary system that has been underpinned by the U.S. dollar for more than half a century.