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France and Germany Pull Together on EU Reform
The leaders of France and Germany declared themselves broadly in agreement on the main issues of reforming the institutions of the European Union after a day of summit talks on Friday in the German town of Mainz.
"France and Germany are very strongly together on pushing ahead reforms of the institutions," German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told a news conference.
The leaders gave no details of compromises they might make on key issues and officials admitted to differences that must be smoothed over before a crucial EU summit in Nice in December.
But the mood music in public was wholly positive between the founding partners of the union as France prepares to take a six-month turn as president of the 15-member bloc on July 1.
And a number of defence and other accords were sealed, including an important joint commitment to a new European military transport aircraft built by Airbus Industrie.
"This summit was an occasion to note that, when it has to, the alliance of France and Germany works immaculately," French President Jacques Chirac said, voicing optimism that the union would be modernised on time to accept new members in eastern Europe. "The Franco-German motor is running well."
"There was good weather in Mainz and there's good weather in our relations," said French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, echoing Schroeder after a hot summer day by the Rhine.
VOTING RIGHTS "WON'T COME BETWEEN US"
Asked about one of the toughest issues dividing Paris and Berlin -- Germany's quest, opposed by France, for more voting power in the EU council to reflect its bigger population -- both Schroeder and Chirac said they did not think it was a problem.
"It won't come between us," Schroeder affirmed.
Anxious to avoid appearing to present the other 13 EU members with a fait accompli from the bloc's founding partners, there was no written statement on EU reform. more over, officials say the basic mood of accord does not reach into every detail: "They don't agree on every issue," one French official conceded.
Talks on defence and security issues produced a number of resolutions, including confirmation of plans to buy the A400M military transport aircraft and of a joint spy satellite system.
Key EU reforms include reducing veto rights, easing rules by which some EU states can develop closer groupings and giving big states more voting power in return for cutting the number of their commissioners. The aim is to make the union manageable after it takes in new members, mainly from eastern Europe.
Schroeder enumerated broad accord on all those issues.
The summit was also an opportunity to take the temperature of the Franco-German partnership a month after German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer provoked a mixed response in France with a landmark call for the long-term goal of a federal Europe.
German officials have been stressing a new warmth after several years of cooler relations that followed the end of the close personal relationship between the late French President Francois Mitterrand and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
And while other observers note continued, if sporadic, frosts, the mood in Mainz was determinedly sunny.
The leaders also discussed reinforcing the political leadership of the European monetary union, known as the Euro-11, although the two finance ministers were not in Mainz. Schroeder said the euro zone governments had to do more to coordinate their economic policies to help the euro in the long run.
The two countries said in a statement issued at the summit they had agreed to cooperate on a spy satellite system that would cut Europe's reliance on U.S. military intelligence.
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