McCreevy, Lafontaine meeting `cordial'

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, yesterday attempted to ease differences between Dublin and Bonn during a one-hour meeting with his German counterpart, Mr Oskar Lafontaine.

Mr McCreevy, who was making his first visit to Bonn since Mr Gerhard Schroder's centre-left government came to power, described the meeting as extremely friendly.

The Minister welcomed yesterday's joint Anglo-German statement on taxation and noted that, in their discussion, Mr Lafontaine did not refer to tax harmonisation.

"Both sides outlined their views on taxation. Mr Lafontaine spoke about `tax co-ordination' and most of the discussion was on the tax on savings directive and codes of conduct," he said.

Despite the cordial atmosphere, Ireland and Germany remain far apart on some of the most important issues facing Europe as Germany prepares to take over the EU presidency on January 1st.

The government in Bonn favours a change in the EU policy on agriculture that would make national governments responsible for part of the subsidy to farmers and a cut in its contribution to the EU budget.