It is becoming a habit. France and Germany – with probably more of a push from the former - are putting back in operation their tandem that has so often and for many years been a driver of European integration. This time, though, its form is ostentatious, the drafting of common positions ahead of EU Councils, transmitted by Franco-German letters at ministerial or even the highest level.

Back in March 2009, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel wrote to the Czech EU Presidency and Commission President José Manuel Barroso on the position to be adopted at the G20 on financial surveillance. Another letter followed, in September 2009, calling for a halt to bankers’ bonuses, then another in May 2010, sent to Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy on governance of the eurozone. Then, on 12 July, the two finance ministers wrote to their colleagues calling for a financial tax (see Europolitics4018). The very same day, the two agriculture ministers sent a letter to Commissioners Dacian Ciolos (agriculture) and Joaquin Almunia (competition) recommending regulation of agricultural markets.

The question is whether these tandem positions will lead to wider (enhanced?) cooperation, but also when and who will lead an opposition to this approach, so little in keeping with the Community method.