Berlin - German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schroder hosts leading fellow European left-wingers today, a week after his Social Democrats proposed creating a strong European government that many of his foreign allies do not want.
On the eve of the conference of the Party of European Socialists (PES), German officials talked up Mr Schroder's federalist ideas, which are aimed at stirring debate leading up to EU reforms planned for 2004.
"We are talking about increasing the operational efficiency of the European Union," Mr Rudolf Scharping, Germany's Defence Minister and deputy head of the Social Democrats (SPD), told the weekend edition of the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
The British and French governments have distanced themselves from Mr Schroder's EU government ideas - resistance German officials say they expected.