Berlin, 18/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - Sources in Berlin announced on Friday that there would be a Franco-German Summit in January with President Chirac, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and Chancellor Schroeder, accompanied by Foreign Ministers Vedrine and Fischer, to draw the lessons of the European Council of Nice. According to the same sources, Gerhard Schroeder considers that Franco-German relations need "re-defining" (so as to overcome the incomprehension of Nice), and Joschka Fischer said that there was no sense in presenting Germany as winner in Nice.
At a session of the Bundestag Committee for European Affairs on the Summit of Nice, Joschka Fischer noted that negotiations had risked failing on the issue of the weighting of votes in the Council. Germany, who preference was for a system of a double majority, is would have been happy with a symbolic extra more vote over France, he remarked. Mr. Fischer also recalled that Germany was prepared to go further than other countries regarding abandoning unanimity in favour of qualified majority voting.