The leaders of Germany and France will seek to breathe new life into Europe's most important alliance when they meet for a two-day summit in Potsdam, near Berlin, today.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, needs the support of the French president, Mr. Jacques Chirac, and the Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, if Germany's presidency of the EU next year is to be a success.
Bonn will take over the EU presidency and the chairmanship of the G7 group of leading industrial nations on January 1st, the day the euro is launched.
Today's summit will focus on agreeing a joint Franco-German position in advance of next week's summit of EU leaders in Vienna but German officials predicted that Russia and the Balkans would also be on the agenda.
Mr Schroder's government is ideologically close to Mr Jospin's Socialists. But there are important disagreements on Agenda 2000, a set of proposals to reform the EU.
Germany is determined to pay less towards the Brussels budget, a change that France resists. And France is fiercely opposed to changing the way farmers are subsidised under the Common Agricultural Policy.
Mr Schroder's government has abandoned Germany's opposition to reforming the CAP and the Agriculture Minister, Mr KarlHeinz Funke, predicted last week that the entire Agenda 2000 reform package would be agreed within the first three months of the German EU presidency.
Mr Schroder has promised to "blow the dust" off the FrancoGerman relationship and to focus on the relationship between the two peoples rather than their governments. But the leaders will be joined in Potsdam by almost two dozen ministers, who will discuss a broad range of bilateral issues.
Mr Schroder's talk of creating a triangular relationship between Germany, France and Britain raised fears in Paris that the Franco-German axis was being downgraded. But British antipathy to the German Finance Minister, Mr Oskar Lafontaine, has led to a cooling-off between Bonn and London.
Mr Lafontaine, who was described by a British tabloid newspaper last week as "the most dangerous man in Europe", is determined to realise a left-wing economic agenda throughout the EU. The most controversial part of his plan is the proposal to harmonise tax rates throughout Europe.
German corporation tax currently stands at 45 per cent, although the new government has promised to bring it down to 35 per cent. The rate in Ireland is 12.5 per cent.
Germany's tax system allows so many write-offs that few firms pay anything close to the full rate of tax and any European-wide harmonisation of tax rates would have to be preceded by the harmonisation of the tax system. But there is no doubt that Mr Lafontaine is determined to create what Germans regard as a level playing field of realistic tax rates, generous benefits, good employment rights and strong environmental laws.
All this is anathema to the British but is music to the ears of Mr Jospin's Socialists. If the two sides can overcome their remaining differences, today's summit could see the creation of a powerful centre-left alliance that will determine the direction of EU policy into the next century.
