Brussels, 07/02/2011 (Agence Europe) -German Chancellor, Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are encouraging what they describe as the “country of reform”, Poland, to join the Franco-German idea of a “Competitiveness Pact” mooted at the European Council on 4 February 2011 to strengthen economic governance in the EU (see EUROPE 10309). Speaking at a summit of the three countries of the “Weimar Triangle” (France, Germany and Poland) in Warsaw on Monday 7 February 2011, Merkel said they hoped Poland would join because Poland is a country of reform. At a joint press conference with Merkel and the Polish President, Bronislaw Komorowski, Sarkozy said that France, like Germany, wanted Poland to join the euro as soon as possible and to join the Competitiveness and Convergence Pact. Berlin and Paris also want Poland to build closer ties with Russia. The three leaders also discussed the forthcoming Polish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers in the second half of 2011
European army. The three leaders called for new impetus behind a “Europe of defence”. In a joint letter published in December 2010, the three countries called on their European partners to give “fresh impetus” to the EU's security and defence policy in a way that is fully complementary to NATO. In Monday 7 February's Financial Times Deutschland, German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Werner Hoyer suggested setting up a “European army” because the idea of the EU having 27 separate and permanently equipped armies was a thing of the past. “We need a debate on putting in place a European army under European command”, he said, expressing the hope that the Weimar Triangle initiative would trigger this discussion. On Monday, Komorowski also published an article in the Gazeta Wyborcza in which he said that EU security and defence policy was “stagnating” and was “failing to fully meet Polish expectations”. (H.B./transl.fl)