FRANCE:WHEN THE Élysée announced this week that the next "Blaesheim summit" of French and German leaders, scheduled to take place on March 3rd, had been postponed until June 9th, there was an outbreak of soul-searching about the chill in Franco-German relations.
The frequent, informal Blaesheim encounters were started by the predecessors of President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel to get through a particularly bad patch in relations.
But Sarkozy and Merkel will in fact meet in Hanover on Monday night to open the CBIT information technology fair, after which they will dine together.
"The Germans wanted Sarkozy to come to Bavaria in the afternoon for the Blaesheim meeting, then fly to Hanover with Merkel. It was too heavy," explained a source at the Élysée, who dismissed reports of a chill in relations as "absolutely ridiculous".
In recent weeks, the German ambassador to Paris and the French ambassador to Berlin have summoned local correspondents to emphasise that intense, fruitful co-operation continues between the countries that constitute "the engine of Europe".
They may protest too much.
Relations between new French and German leaders have always been awkward at the outset, and Sarkozy and Merkel may yet learn to like each other. They worked together closely in the run-up to his election last May, enabling the German EU presidency to present the reform treaty at the June summit in Brussels.
Personality differences are the crux of Franco-German difficulties. Merkel is an academic who was raised by her Protestant pastor father in the joyless former East Germany. For entertainment, she and her husband go to the Bayreuth opera festival or walking in the mountains. At the head of a cumbersome coalition, she is a master of consensus and conciliation.
By contrast, Sarkozy, is an extrovert, the "bling-bling president" who is fond of Rolex watches, private jets and pop stars. His penchant for acting unilaterally, without prior consultation, has extended to European issues. Merkel could not help resenting the way he stole credit for the reform treaty, and for the liberation of the Bulgarian nurses from Libya last summer, after Germany did the groundwork.
But despite German distaste for Sarkozy's flamboyant style, "The Germans believe Sarkozy is the only French leader who can carry out reforms similar to what Schröder did with Agenda 2010," says Dorothea Hahn of Tageszeitung newspaper.
"That is to say: deregulate the labour market, make people contribute to their medical care, raise the retirement age. If Sarkozy doesn't do these things, no one else will. So Germany has to give him a little support, even if they find him ridiculous."
There have been clashes over economic policy; the Germany finance minister Peer Steinbrück is almost persona non grata in France since he criticised Sarkozy's "fiscal presents" to the rich. Germany has promised to phase out nuclear power by 2020, and Sarkozy's statement that Germany "must reconsider its rejection of nuclear energy" needled many. Berlin takes a bleak view of Sarkozy's flogging nuclear reactors in unstable regions.
France and Germany take opposing views on the European Central Bank's monetary policy. Their co-stewardship of the Airbus consortium EADS has been rocky. And Merkel does not appreciate Sarkozy's desire to make Tony Blair the first president of Europe, because she believes the successful candidate must come from the Eurogroup.
The biggest irritant at the moment is Sarkozy's plan for a Mediterranean Union that would bring together all countries with a Mediterranean coastline.
Germany dislikes the use of the word "union" for a project that Berlin views as an attempt to create a French zone of influence. An official at the Élysée insisted that Germany, like all EU members, may be "associated" with the Mediterranean Union if it so wishes.
