Newly Inaugurated Hollande Begins Partnership With Merkel Jacky Naegelen/Reuters France's newly-elected President Francois Hollande left his former campaign headquarters in Paris on May 14, 2012. PARIS - It is a measure of the importance to France of the relationship with Germany that François Hollande, after taking office on Tuesday, will eat his first dinner as president of France in Berlin, in the company of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Having accused former President Nicolas Sarkozy of submissiveness to Ms. Merkel, Mr. Hollande is choosing to ignore the symbolism of such a quick visit to Germany. While it is unlikely that souvlakia will be served, the Greek political and economic crisis will certainly be on the menu, and France and Germany, the two largest economies in the euro zone, have a lot to discuss. Mr. Hollande, a Socialist, campaigned on a vow to renegotiate a German-inspired European Union treaty with debt limits in euro zone countries, promising to add provisions promoting economic growth. Germany, he said, could not "decide for all of Europe." German officials have made clear to Mr. Hollande that the treaty, already ratified by numerous European countries, cannot be renegotiated. But he also needs a gesture of good faith from Ms. Merkel, who supported Mr. Sarkozy. So diplomats are drafting a "political statement on growth" that can be tacked on; it is expected to contain measures that will not increase debt or change the charter of the European Central Bank, the two Merkel red lines, but will largely readjust targets for existing funds. The French and German leaders are condemned to work together. But Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy disliked each other, and she is likely to find the companionable Mr. Hollande - a devoted European and a disciple of Jacques Delors, considered the most successful president of the European Commission - a much easier person to deal with. Mr. Hollande is also much more likely to support German ideas to buttress central authority in Brussels over the countries that use the euro, while Mr. Sarkozy wanted all major decisions to remain in the hands of national leaders. Their differences are real, but they can be exaggerated. The fiscal pact itself has little teeth, and Mr. Hollande has already promised to obey its debt limits and even balance France's budget by 2017, so the call for more growth versus austerity is largely political. "It is a false debate," said Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and financial affairs. We need to stay on course for fiscal adjustment and also promote growth. There is "a new political landscape," Mr. Rehn said. But policy making is not just about symbolism but substance, and there is no alternative to moving ahead with fiscal consolidation. Everyone favors growth, but Germany will not allow old-fashioned pump-priming oiled by new deficit spending. Ms. Merkel wants sustainable growth. What Germany fears most, said Finland's European affairs minister, Alexander Stubb, "is the French model of the euro zone - a transfer union," in which rich countries regularly send money to poorer ones. But both sides are expected to agree to increase the resources of the European Investment Bank by as much as $12.8 billion, to reallocate unused European Union structural funds for economic growth, to support a financial transaction tax and even, some suggest, support collective bonds to finance carefully chosen public works projects. But Mr. Hollande does not share the Anglo-German notion that sustainable growth comes mostly from structural changes like liberalizing the labor market and reducing taxes on companies to promote productivity and competitiveness. He wants at least a temporary agreement to let the European Central Bank loosen its inflationary strings beyond what the charter demands, 2 percent or lower - though inflation was already 2.6 percent in April in the euro zone, according to Eurostat. He wants the bank to emphasize growth as well as low inflation, and to be able to lend directly to governments, a charter change that Germany also rejects. Still, Ms. Merkel - with her conservative party hammered in two successive state elections, her Dutch ally facing new elections and the opposition Social Democrats praising the election of Mr. Hollande - needs to jump a bit on the growth bandwagon, however defined. As the newspaper Le Monde said on Monday, her party's showing in the large state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with about 22 percent of German voters, "is at the same time bad news for the chancellor and good news for François Hollande." Steven Erlanger reported from Paris, and Nicholas Kulish from Berlin.