Brussels, 18/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - The new German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose "Grand Coalition" government (CDU/CSU-SPD) will be formally invested on 22 November, has decided to visit Paris and Brussels the day after. On 23 November, she will meet President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin in Paris. Afterwards, in Brussels, she will hold talks with the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell and the Secretary General of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. In Brussels next Wednesday, a meeting is also scheduled with the Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt.
It is worth noting that Angela Merkel has selected, as her principal adviser to the German Chancellory on foreign and security policy, Christoph Heusgen (50 years old), who has been one of Javier Solana's closest collaborators in recent years, at the head of the policy unit of the Council of the European Union (see EUROPE 9070).