GERMANY:Nicolas Sarkozy's first foreign trip as French president will be to Germany. His arrival in Berlin will be watched closely all over Europe for signals of any gear-shift in the Franco-German motor that has driven the EU for decades.
There is an optimism in Berlin that despite their differing political styles, the confrontational Mr Sarkozy and the conciliatory chancellor Angela Merkel will bring a new dynamic to the Franco-German relationship and help revive the constitutional treaty rejected by French and Dutch voters two years ago.
Henrik Uterwedde, deputy director of the German French Institute in Ludwigsburg, said: "President Chirac and chancellor [ Gerhard] Schröder were bizarre - in the first years they neglected the Franco-German relationship and annoyed each other, then it tipped over into the great brotherhood that annoyed everyone else."
Mr Uterwedde added: "Both Sarkozy and Merkel say that Germany and France are important, but are not everything. I think they will find a middle way and return to the beneficial Franco-German co-operation from the time when it worked best: without a dominance of the two counties. The relationship is still needed even when, in an EU of 27, its influence has been relativised."
Mr Sarkozy's election, along with the departure of British prime minister Tony Blair, kicks off the final lap of Germany's EU presidency, when Berlin will try to get EU leaders to agree on what can be salvaged from the treaty and to commit EU leaders to a timetable for an agreement.
"From a German perspective, what is good with Sarkozy is that there is a new dynamic, new energy there," said Dr Ulrike Guérot, senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund think-tank in Berlin. "He's put on the table what's doable with him."
Mr Sarkozy's campaign promises to help drive on the EU treaty debate pleased German officials working overtime to piece together an agreement - until his brusque comments dismissing Turkey's EU ambitions.
Berlin officials hope that in office Mr Sarkozy will adopt the approach of Dr Merkel, a fellow Turkey sceptic, and push the issue off the daily order of business and into the distant future.
Mr Sarkozy has helped German efforts at reaching a consensus by saying he is prepared to agree to a "mini-treaty" to be ratified by the French parliament.
"Berlin sees that as preferable and more predictable. It's easier to discipline MPs than voters," said Dr Danielle Schwarzer, analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
"Ségolène Royal would have had a party revolt in parliament and a referendum would have been very unpredictable."
Even without a referendum, the constitutional treaty issue is far from resolved for France. Berlin will be watching closely at how effectively the French anti-treaty camp remobilises and what Mr Sarkozy can offer to make the EU and the constitutional treaty more attractive to the French public a second time around.
Considering his essentially pro-treaty stance, many Germans were unsettled by Mr Sarkozy's campaign rhetoric that EU citizens needed "protection" and that many EU citizens viewed the union as a "Trojan horse for the threats of a changing world".
Some suggest the remarks were a political strategy to prepare the ground for his domestic political agenda.
Dr Merkel and Mr Sarkozy have great potential to influence the attempted revival of the constitutional treaty. Even after Berlin hands over the presidency in eight weeks, it will continue to influence the process as part of the EU's first "trio" presidency with Portugal and then Slovenia until France takes over in 2009.