Germany,France Pledge to Help EU

BERLIN (AP) -- Germany and France are pledging to seek ways to strengthen the eurozone, with harmonization of corporate taxes among possible measures.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and new French counterpart Bruno Le Maire said Monday they're setting up a working group to produce proposals for a planned bilateral summit in July.

Le Maire said: "We've been talking for years about progress in integrating the eurozone, but things aren't advancing quickly enough or far enough. We are determined to get things moving faster and further."

He said there needs to be better coordination of economic policy, and that investment will also be considered.

Schaeuble says Germany and France could either propose a joint corporate tax or concentrate on pushing ahead efforts for a harmonized assessment basis for European corporate tax.

(KA)