Merkel and Sarkozy forge unlikely - and unequal - partnership

"They really are chalk and cheese," says Charles Grant, director of the CER. "She is sober, dull, pragmatic, serious, uninspired, un-visionary. He is impatient, mercurial, full of energy, visionary on a good day - but maddeningly annoying to deal with!"

"When you have a Franco-German summit it appears that they are equal, that they both decide things and then persuade the others to follow. But if you look at the details of the policies that Merkel and Sarkozy are coming up with, on almost every single occasion it's the German wishes that predominate." says CER's Grant.  "For example, should there be a new EU treaty? The Germans wanted one – nobody else wanted one, the French didn't want one - but the Germans got their way, there will be a new EU treaty." The deliberations over the European Central Bank's policy on buying bonds from problem countries like Spain and Italy went much the same. "Germans say no, French say yes. German view wins."