By IRNA,
Berlin : The deepening Franco-German row over how to confront the worsening economic and financial crisis is threatening to spark a major conflict within the European Union.
The German government strongly dismissed news reports on Friday that Chancellor Angela Merkel was upset for not being invited to talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in London on Monday.
German deputy government spokesperson Thomas Steg said that the talks between Sarkozy and Brown was a bilateral meeting before next week’s European leaders’ summit on December 11-12.
Barroso was due to join Brown and Sarkozy later for talks afterwards with business leaders, Steg said at a routine weekly press briefing regular government news conference.
“Because Barroso was taking part in this, which shows that no one is being isolated … the Commission president immediately phoned the chancellor and informed her about it,” the chancellery official said.
“Because it is a bilateral meeting we never expected that the chancellor would attend,” he added.
Steg pointed out that Merkel had held talks in London with Brown recently when Sarkozy had not been present, and that all the “excitement” in the German papers was merely a “storm in a tea cup.” He made clear that nothing could be done “without Germany.” “The chancellor is of course not isolated, Germany is not isolated,” Steg said.
The spokesperson also emphasized again that Germany was doing its part to jump-start the economy and that Merkel would defend the country’s economic stimulus package at next week’s EU leaders’ meeting.
“We expect that when it comes to intensive discussions in Brussels next week and the chancellor has the opportunity to present and fully explain fully our package of measures … there will be a lot of praise.”
Sarkozy has repeatedly criticized Merkel for not doing enough to boost the German economy which is on the verge of its worst recession since 1949.
France and to a lesser degree Britain have pressed Germany – as the largest European economy – to spend more than the 31 billion euros pledged by Berlin to spur economic growth.
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck who has faced the scorn of Sarkozy in the past, confirmed that there had been “noticeable pressure.”
According to the Hamburg-based Die Welt newspaper, relations between Sarkozy and Merkel are strained and both governments have even adopted a “hostile” stance.
Both leaders have in the past differed on a series of issues, among them plans for the Mediterranean Union, French nuclear exports and the degree of independence of the European Central Bank.
The French president has also made no qualms about his country becoming the new lead nation in Europe.
The strength of Franco-German relations was often highlighted in the past by the fact that both nation’s leaders were able to find a compromise despite opposing interests, the daily Tagesspiegel said in a recent editorial.
It was this kind of compromise which helped advance the EU as a whole, however Sarkozy and Merkel don’t appear to think in those categories, the paper added.