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Germany, France Reaffirm Pledge
Germany, France Reaffirm Pledge
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin held talks Wednesday near Strasbourg, just across the Rhine from Germany.
The meeting was meant to offset German-French acrimony at the European Union summit in December in Nice, France. Even before Nice, diverging ideas about Europe's future were straining ties between Berlin and Paris, adding to old French fears of German domination due to its larger size and economic might.
France and Germany reaffirmed their two-nation partnership that has been the driving force toward greater European unity, pledging to put recent power struggles behind and look to the future.
After a three-hour dinner in a French country restaurant, leaders of both nations said they had reviewed all problems in their relationship and agreed to step up their pace of informal get-togethers to try to promote amity in the future.
Tensions flared at the EU summit in Nice, France, where Chirac blocked Germany's push for privileged voting weight in EU bodies. Instead, French and German votes were left equal �� a formula thrown into question a decade ago by Germany's jump in population after the Berlin Wall fell and communist East Germany merged with the west.
In addition, Schroeder has proclaimed the ideal of a federal Europe, an idea with little resonance in a proud nation like France, and called for a ``new definition'' of German-French relations.
Chirac said after Wednesday's dinner that both sides shared a vision of a ``deepening'' of Europe �� a code word for shifting power to the EU from national governments �� but he insisted that there should be ``an equality of rights and duties,'' reflecting French sensitivity about a role equal to Germany's.
Schroeder said Germany and France continue to share responsibility for advancing the European cause, notably the EU's eastward expansion.
``Whatever minor differences we have, this task can be taken on only by Germany and France together,'' Schroeder said.
The three leaders presented few specifics except for Schroeder's proposal, backed by Jospin, that they should from now on meet informally at least every two months, outside the schedule of regular half-yearly German-French summits.
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