German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to set up a joint ministerial team

Date: 05/11/1998

to investigate how to combine capitalism with a social safety net at their first bilateral summit in London this week. The team is meant to complement a similar Franco-German group on EU policy set up after Schröder was elected in late September. On the same day, Blair's Finance Minister Gordon Brown announced plans to draft a “national change-over plan” to prepare the UK for membership of the euro zone.