Brussels, 19/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - At the end of their summit on 18 February in Berlin, the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, French president Jacques Chirac and British prime minister Tony Blair jointly signed a letter addressed to the presidents of the European Council and European Commission in view of the Spring Summit 25-26 March. In their letter (which we will be looking at later), the three Heads of State call for a more innovative EU, more jobs, and modernisation of the European social model. The ministers accompanying them (for the economy and finance, research and health) put these ideas forward in the work three documents to be presented to the Union specialised Councils.
In their letter, Shcröder, Chirac and Blair call for in the next European Commission the appointment of a vice president who will focus exclusively on economic reforms. They consider that his role will consist in advancing the Lisbon Agenda and coordinating the work of the Commissioners whose portfolios are particularly important for implementing the agenda. This vice president will have to be able to intervene in all decisions affecting EU projects that have an impact on the objectives of the Lisbon Agenda.
The letter also explains that the policy that they have defined goes beyond the next financial framework of the EU. It could be financed in the framework of a ceiling on Community spending of 1% of GDP in the EU insofar as it is used essentially to improvement the enterprise environment and allow for better resource allocation.
In their press conference, the three leaders rejected criticism of this kind of summit. Chirac indicated that all meetings enabled the joint elaboration of a certain vision that they wanted for the future Europe and to draw the lessons so that projected reforms were positive . He stated that they would therefore be continuing with this kind of meeting (while stressing that the Franco-German relationship was "very deep" and that is was of a specific nature that could not be exported, at least in the short term). He added that Nordic countries met up regularly as did those from the Benelux and they themselves had Wiemar and Visegrad. In connection with Mr Blair, he explained that they had found that they had not been on the same side during the significant Iraq issue but that on defence issues they had found some agreement and their foreign ministers had gone to Iran and had accomplished positive results. According to Chirac countries that represent almost half the European population and more than half of Europe's wealth had to work together - the most important thing was to make Europe more effective and work for everyone.