A joint industrial working group, which was created last October to help foster better cooperation between Germany and France, met to discuss ways to improve economic conditions and job creation in the two countries. In addition to discussing ways to put recent disputes over corporate takeovers behind them, the meeting was an opportunity for French and German industrialists to criticize European Union policies that they view as holding back European industry.
See "France and Germany to pledge joint effort to bolster industry", James Kanter, International Herald Tribune, March 2, 2005