Brussels, 17/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - Several days before the meeting of European Union Defence Ministers, on 17 May in Brussels, France and Germany announced their intention to step up military cooperation with a view to developing European defence (See EUROPE of 14 May, p.5). After the Franco-German Security and Defence Council, on 13 May in Paris, at the time of the third Council of Franco-German ministers, the two countries adopted a declaration announcing that France would take over...