Word: french
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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...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel won over German voters in a federal election on Sept. 27. Can she now be won over by a French charm offensive aimed at repairing the relationship that was once at the heart of Europe? That's the question being asked in Paris, where top government officials are openly talking about their desire to rekindle closer ties with their neighbors across the Rhine. Since the end of World War II the Franco-German relationship has been the motor of European integration, the driving force behind the creation of the European Union and, more recently, the introduction...
...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...
...Obama's attempt to hold Iran to account may disappoint many who have been closely tracking the U.S. effort to back Tehran away from the nuclear threshold - not because the President showed any lack of resolve, but because the resolve of others remains in question. The British and French leaders were adamant in their support, with Sarkozy warning that "if by December there is not an in-depth change by the Iranian leaders," tough new sanctions would be applied. Brown called the new development the greatest challenge facing the international community. But Germany, which has recently shown reticence to expand...