Hollande and Merkel vow to seek growth for Europe

His first official trip as head of state offered Hollande a first taste of international diplomacy for a summit that had been much hyped in the media.

As one of his pre-election promises Hollande had vowed to renegotiate the EU fiscal pact to include growth-boosting measures and allow for a loosening of the purse strings.

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But Merkel, who had openly sided with incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy during the campaign, had already poured cold water on that idea, warning that Europe’s austerity cure was not negotiable.

Tuesday’s summit was billed as the first of many predicted clashes between the two leaders, but in a joint press conference they were eager to present a united front.

Hollande said Germany and France would “put all ideas and all proposals on the table” to generate economic growth in Europe, an issue on which Merkel claimed she and Hollande had “points in common”.

"Everything has to be looked at anew by everyone," insisted Hollande.

Both leaders also reaffirmed their desire for Greece to stay in the eurozone and hoped Greek voters would show this when the country holds a rerun of the recent parliamentary elections on June 17.

“I hope that we can say to the Greeks that Europe is ready to add measures to help growth and support economic activity so that there is a return to growth in Greece,” Hollande said.

The two leaders agreed the two countries will present their ideas for how to foster economic growth when they meet again on May 23 and then at a Council of Europe summit at the end of June.

"It will be very important that Germany and France present their ideas
together at this summit," Merkel said.

FRANCE 24’s Europe editor Christophe Robeet said the duo’s differences of opinion were evident despite the united front they presented.

“Hollande seemed more relaxed in his role to me and was quite self-confident. At times Merkel looked puzzled when he spoke and I am not sure she appreciated everything he said,” Robeet said.

Hollande’s trip to Berlin had been briefly delayed when his plane was forced to turn back to Paris for safety reasons after apparently being struck by lightning en route. The new president quickly swapped aircrafts for "safety concerns" and set off once again for the German capital.

The duo's first face to face talks eventually got underway more than an hour later than planned and were due to be followed by what had been labelled a “working dinner”.