Another topic discussed today the amendments to the treaties

A week exactly after a last-minute visit of Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin, the President of the Republic and Chancellor Merkel are indeed, today, to meet in the German capital.

The postponement of maintenance scheduled for June 7, justified differently in the Chancellery and the Elysee Palace, could be interpreted as a new Franco-German cold. In fact, this week of breathing allowed both parties to better prepare. Angela Merkel, who faces a very difficult domestic situation (see discussion page 14), could explain the directions of the savings programme presented on 7 June, after stormy negotiations among the majority parliamentary groups of the Bundestag. Nicolas Sarkozy, for its part, able to analyze in depth the plan of rigour, less drastic than Berlin means well the. And sometimes very ads Saturday in Paris of François Fillon on budgetary effort that Paris is here to provide to 2013.

At the agenda of the two leaders, today: the preparation of the European Council at the end of the week and the G20 in Toronto at the end of the month. In the heart of the discussions is governance in the Union, while Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, must submit Thursday to the twenty-seven, meeting in Brussels, a progress report, based on the work of the working group he leads. Despite real tensions between the two capitals, there was jubilation, Friday, in the Elysee Palace, an agreement between Berlin and Paris on the main principles: "the need for an economic government, the fact that it falls within the heads of State and Government, and that it must be reinforced at two levels, one of the EU-27 and 16 euro-zone." The question is to articulate the two.

Market pressure

A diplomat confirmed that he did not expect Brussels clash between Sarkozy and Merkel. But there are a lot of misunderstandings. When the French require more meetings of the euro area, the Germans include that it wants to summon the President of the ECB and dictate what to do; When the first request a stabilisation fund, the latter fear of having to pay each time that a country will be close to default. In the other direction, when the Germans demand more rigor, the French warn against its potentially recessive effects. The work of mutual explanation is all the more difficult that it cannot be done publicly, on pain of prejudice to the euro, already weakened. "Policies are under enormous pressure from the markets", indicates the same diplomat.

On the question of the degree of desirable institutionalization of coordination of economic policies in the euro area, the Elysee said much less plaintiff told the a new formal structure.

Another topic discussed today: the amendments to the treaties. The Elysee said support of Angela Merkel proposals for new sanctions against the lax States, for example a withdrawal of their European voting rights. But Paris also asked lucidly assess the feasibility of the necessary innovations, while the Lisbon Treaty took years to be ratified. The President of the Council, Herman Van Rompuy, said to want to work "within the existing texts", but have "no taboo" if new legal clauses proved necessary.