French and German ministers meet to firm up IGC strategy

THE foreign ministers of France and Germany met yesterday to agree a joint strategy for next month's EU Inter Governmental Conference aimed at creating a common European defence policy and introducing majority voting on most issues in Brussels.

Mr Klaus Kinkel met Mr Herve de Charette at the second Franco German seminar in Freiburg, part of an initiative begun by Bonn and Paris last year to promote closer bilateral links.

Mr Kinkel yesterday restated Germany's determination to press ahead with a single European currency in 1999 and warned critics of monetary union that they were playing with fire.

"If Europe wants stability and prosperity at home and a role on the world stage, it has no alternative to the goal of a common security policy and a common currency," he said.

Bonn is concerned that there should be no weakening in the close co-operation between France and Germany which has been central to the European project since its inception.

Yesterday's meeting was part of a regular series to co-ordinate policy before EU summits, but doubts over the future of the single currency in advance of the IGC have made matters more urgent.

France and Germany already agree on the need for a multi speed Europe to help integrate new member states from central aid eastern Europe while allowing some countries to forge closer links.

Moves by Paris towards a closer relationship with Nato have helped Bonn's plans to transform the Western European Union (WEU) into the military arm of the EU while remaining part of the western alliance.

Dr Wolfgang Schauble, parliamentary leader of the governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told a German newspaper yesterday that France now understood that the EU remained its only hope of retaining influence in the world.

He called for new initiatives to strengthen links between France and Germany for the sake of Europe's future. "Without close cooperation between France and Germany, nothing will come of Europe," he said.

Mr Kinkel and Mr de Charette were joined by the French and German Ministers for European Affairs. They also discussed Yugoslavia.

Three or four countries will take part at the beginning of the planned European economic and monetary union (EMU), Mr Kinkel predicted yesterday before going on to meet his French counterpart.

He said Britain and one or two other countries, which he declined to name, could fall into this category. He said neither the EMU criteria nor the timetable for its introduction should be altered. The Maastricht Treaty on European Union lays down a start date of 11999.

He added"I have nothing against naming a secretary general for the common foreign and security policy, but the political responsibility for the decision must stay where it belongs, with the Council of Foreign Ministers."