23/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - The Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU rotating presidency, and France, which held the presidency in the second half of 2008, agreed on Monday to meet more regularly in order to ease their relations and avoid any new friction in the future. Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since the beginning of the year when a number of declarations from Paris seemed to criticise the Czech Presidency, reproaching it, among other things, for its passive response to the economic crisis. The situation grew worse on 5 February when Nicolas Sarkozy criticised the relocation of French car plants to the Czech Republic. On 23 February, on the sidelines of the General Affairs Council, French and Czech foreign ministers sought to minimise the matter. “Our views are really quite close”, Karel Schwarzenberg told the press, speaking of “rumours in the media over a misunderstanding”. “What is sometimes published in the press” on the subject of disagreements between the two countries “is absolutely not true”, Bernard Kouchner said for his part. In order to avoid any further misunderstanding, the two ministers have announced that they would speak to each other “twice a week” from now on. Schwarzenberg and Kouchner have also decided to go to Bosnia together, but did not give a date for their trip. (H.B./transl.jl)