Berlin, 05/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday evening, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder received, in Berlin, the French President and Prime Minister, Jacques Chirac and Lionel Jospin, for one of the informal dinners that Germany and France have held at regular intervals since the European Council of Nice. The dinner is in addition to their formal half-yearly summits, in order to rekindle the Franco-German drive in Europe.
On this occasion, several international policy themes were in the fore, such as the Middle East (where German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer tried, this summer, to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer together) and Macedonia. The themes more specifically related to European construction included the role of the EU in the face of globalisation and the violent reactions that globalisation provokes from part of European public opinion. In this context, Chancellor Schröder said, on the occasion of an economic seminar by the German Social Democrat Party, that he was ready to discuss with the EU partners, and "especially with the French", how to combat flows of financial speculation, while considering that one should not focus on a single instrument, such as the Tobin tax (to be discussed during the Informal Ecofin Council from 21 to 23 September in Liège. German Finance Minister Hans Eichel had expressed serious doubts on the tax during his recent meeting with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius: see EUROPE of 1 September, p.4).