Word: french
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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None of this is, as yet, official French policy. But several top political figures close to Sarkozy, who was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Merkel on her re-election, argue that it's time France and Germany seized the reins in Europe again. Assuming Irish voters approve the E.U.'s Lisbon Treaty on Oct. 2, a decade-long debate over the E.U.'s institutions should come to an end later this year, opening the way for a new wave of change. "We've had a decade of institutional masturbation, during which everyone lost their public opinion...
...influential movers in France are now eager to put the relationship back on a friendlier footing. In a recent paper French think tank Institut Montaigne laid out an ambitious agenda for the two nations, arguing that a new impetus is needed if Europe's voice is to be heard in a world full of big new players, such as Brazil and India, and at a time when President Obama seems far more preoccupied with China and the rest of Asia than with America's traditional allies in Europe. Among other proposals, the think tank recommends that France share...
There are signs his counterparts in Berlin agree. Merkel made a point of mentioning Sarkozy in her final campaign appearance on the eve of the election, and there's a growing belief that new joint initiatives could now follow. "There is a desire for a new spring in French-German relations - even if it's autumn," says Claire Demesmay, a France expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. Even the personal aspect of the relationship seems to be improving. In France, Pascale Joannin, general manager of the Robert Schumann Foundation, a think tank, says that while "Merkel...
...help that Merkel's hands are likely to be less tied in a coalition with the economically liberal Free Democrats than they were with the Social Democrats - a change that could push Germany closer to the French line on nuclear power and relations with Russia. But what isn't yet known is how warmly the Free Democrats will embrace closer cooperation with France. They won 14.6% of the vote, a record result for the party, and their leader, Guido Westerwelle, is likely to become the next Foreign Minister. His campaign focused on how to revive Germany's economy...
...formidable corporate power broker. At a recent panel discussion in Paris, Léo Apotheker, the CEO of German software firm SAP, endorsed many of the institute's ideas and lamented that the recent financial crisis "showed the nonexistence of Europe." He also advocated merging the French employers' association Medef with its German counterpart, the Federation of German Industries...