Mark Mardell's Euroblog

The odd couple

• Mark Mardell
• 16 Dec 07, 10:05 PM

She sits primly and listens, hands folded. He gestures expansibly and talks.

At last week's summit it was obvious that the old Franco-German engine, which is meant to drive Europe, is not firing on all cylinders.

The political relationship between diplomats and civil servants is as strong as ever. But the leaders of the two countries do not get on. That means a paucity of common projects and new initiatives.

One experienced insider paints a fascinating picture. Germany's chancellor never opens her mouth without knowing what she is going to say. She has analysed every angle and decided on the best approach. Which she will express with moderation and caution.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, sitting in the chair opposite, can't keep still. He gestures with his hands, his arms, his whole body.

Ideas man

He fires off ideas, a dozen a minute. It's not just that he hasn't run them past officials: he's barely run them past his own brain, having just thought them up in the past few seconds.

I'm told Merkel has come to despise his habit of coming out of a meeting and telling the world that the person sitting opposite him has agreed with his latest wheeze, when all they have done is murmured polite interest.

She has poured public scorn on Sarkozy's big idea of a Mediterranean Union, worried that it undermines the EU, and proposed, with a straight face, that Germany, despite its noticeable lack of Mediterranean coastline, should be part of the project.

They have taken their countries' foreign policy in different directions.

While she appears to have adopted what Robin Cook might have called "an ethical foreign policy", lecturing China, Zimbawe and President Putin on democracy, he has enthusiastically hosted Colonel Gaddafi, rings Putin on a regular basis and left his human rights advisor at home when he visited China.

To the disappointment of Marxist historians, personality matters hugely in politics and diplomatic relations.

The Franco-German engine will not fail altogether but it drives a far more complex and diverse European Union than in the past.

And the personal touch is important. There is room for Gordon Brown to insert himself between the odd couple, but he doesn't appear to be about to take the opportunity.

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