European stock markets closed mixed this evening after yesterday's meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Financial shares were particularly badly hit by their proposals for a new tax on financial transactions.
London's FTSE closed 0.5% lower, while the DAX in Frankfurt was down 0.8%. The Dublin and Paris markets closed higher with the ISEQ up over 1% and the CAC gaining 0.7%.
On bond markets, the cost of borrowing for Italy and Spain was little changed from yesterday.
The French and German leaders yesterday called for 'true economic governance' for the euro zone in response to the euro debt crisis.
They presented proposals for greater euro zone governance, a financial transaction tax and constitutional limits on countries' budget deficits as ways to stabilise the single currency.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan said he welcomed the Franco-German proposals. He told Morning Ireland a proposed limit on budget deficits - perhaps enshrined in the Constitution - had merit, but had still to be discussed within the Government.
Mr Noonan also told RTÉ that there was no threat to Ireland's 12.5% corporation tax rate arising from the meeting. Mr Noonan said that if France and Germany wanted to harmonise their own company taxes, that was their business.
The Minister said there would be objections from many countries to a financial transaction tax. He said Ireland would be watching to see whether such a tax would apply to all 27 EU countries, particularly as Dublin's financial services industry was competing with London.
European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Economic & Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn today issued a joint statement welcoming yesterday's proposals from Paris.
'They represent an important political contribution by the leaders of the two largest euro area economies to this debate and the ongoing work,' they said.
They said a proposed financial transaction tax would be a 'key instrument' to ensure that the financial sector makes a fairer contribution to public accounts, adding that the Commission intended to make a proposal on this issue soon.
