European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said on Monday the euro's exchange rate was not the most important determinant of the health of a eurozone country's exports.
Almunia also launched a scathing attack on Europe's contradictory attitude to cross-border mergers, which were only welcomed when launched by European firms on overseas targets.
Taking a swipe at France, the most vocal opponent to date of the euro's recent surge to 20-month highs against the dollar, Almunia said selling the right goods to the right markets was a better option than griping about exchange rates.
"What you sell is much more important than the level of the euro's exchange rate," he said in the text of a speech prepared for delivery at the Nouvelle Republique club in Paris. "Having followed French debates for years I sometimes have the impression that for France the euro can only have two positions - it is either too high or too low.
"The facts show that one should not have one's eyes riveted on the currency's value. Germany has the same currency as France and is the world's premier exporter." Almunia said about 48 percent of European exports were aimed at the world's 10 most dynamic markets. By comparison, three-quarters of Japanese exports and 80 percent of American exports were destined for such fast-growing markets.
France also came under attack from Almunia for failing to live up to its rhetoric. "France is a strange country," Almunia said. He highlighted the key role it played in the construction of the European Union and its single market but added: "Despite all this words like free trade, the big internal market and globalisation remain taboos, almost shameful.
"Competition is perceived as a threat and the development of emerging countries, despite decades of generous French talk of development, remains a semi-catastrophe."
There was also a contradiction when it came to cross-border mergers and acquisitions, Almunia said. "A malicious observer might be tempted to draw ironic conclusions - that Europeans would like to help the third world to develop but only as long as they stay poor.
"Their egos are flattered when their big firms increase their overseas acquisitions but they howl about the Anglo-Saxon threat, the Chinese peril or the Indian invasion when a big foreign firm buys a national player." He said trade was not a zero sum game in which Europe would lose out if others benefited.
"The fact that the Chinese, the Indians, or the Koreans become richer, more dynamic and more enterprising does not impoverish us. Rather, we are all winners, Asians as well as Europeans." Still, globalisation posed challenges which made it imperative for the European Union to take certain steps to stay competitive.
Almunia urged the members of the bloc to deepen the internal market, to boost spending on research and development and to redirect their trading activities towards fast-growing markets, and high-value added goods. Reforms were also vital even if governments sometimes feared that such measures would make them unpopular come election time.
"Our enemy is neither China, India nor Brazil - it is ourselves. We have a tendency to be satisfied with a little and to close our eyes to uncomfortable truths," Almunia said.