Europe's odd couple sets off on right foot

At a closely-watched European Union summit into the wee hours Thursday, his first since a May 6 election, Hollande stole the thunder from the continent's most powerful leader.
In Berlin, news weekly Der Spiegel dubbed it "the first EU summit in years not dominated by Merkel" and said "Hollande steals the show."

After five years of "Merkozy" -- coined after the tie-up between Merkel and conservative Nicolas Sarkozy -- the EU's 27 members are anxiously watching whether the bloc's Franco-German motor morphs into a like-minded "Frangela," if not "Merkollande", or simply flies apart.

In crisis-hit Europe, Merkel is the high-priestess of austerity, Hollande the just-elected prophet of growth. The former leads the continent's powerhouse nation and paymaster, the latter the EU's second biggest economy, though one storing up a sea of trouble.

At the summit, Hollande urged peers to sign off on a new, if vague, growth pact next month, saying too much austerity is driving Europe into profound recession.

He also dared a long-taboo suggestion that countries sharing the euro borrow jointly in future to spread risk more evenly. By issuing so-called "eurobonds," countries would all borrow at median rates, lowering costs for the most indebted of the 17 euro nations, but raising the bills in Berlin.

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