THIS is supposed to be a column with a light touch, maybe a little humorous, describing the human aspects of my jobs as Foreign Secretary and Blackburn's MP.

Often this is fairly easy --- and I can see the funny side of life in all sorts of unpromising situations.

But I'm not sure I am up to the task of making the "trilateral" summit in Berlin sound anything other than it is likely to be -- very serious. So I'll concentrate instead on why the Prime Minister and I, and three other Ministers, are making the trip at all, and to try and answer a perfectly valid question: where's the beef for Blackburn and North East Lancashire?

From the outside, I always reckon that these occasions look pretty dire. Politicians shaking hands with each other, and smiling; journalists (there's usually scores of them) trying to give a running commentary on a game they cannot see; communiqus and briefings at the end of the meeting in rather deadly prose; more hand shakes and smiles; and then, that's it. And there's the ever present danger that apart from it all looking boring, we risk looking pompous too.

So don't hold your breath. There will not have been some "dramatic breakthrough" in Berlin, white smoke up the chimney to signal that at long last we've found the answer to all the EU's problems. But it should prove a workmanlike session, with benefits over time for the UK and our area.

The "summit" is between France, Germany and the UK. It's caused a bit a fuss in some other countries in the EU, though by no means all, on the grounds that the "big three" might be trying to set up some sort of EU executive: which we're not.

In an EU of 15, and still more of 25, groups of member countries with similar interests or concerns are bound to meet, to try to sort those out informally. So the Nordic and Baltic states meet regularly, as do the "Benelux" (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) nations and the South Europeans. But because Germany, France and the UK are the largest countries in the EU, there is anxiety. But it's precisely because we are the largest that there are good reasons for us to meet.

The UK, France and Germany have a combined population of just over 200 million. The other 22 countries in the EU (after 1 May) together have 252 million. Our three economies account for more than half of all the EU's national incomes, and together we spend 50% more on defence than the other 22 combined.

The UK's economy is doing pretty well at the moment. Our unemployment rate is 4.9% and falling (Blackburn's is down 40% since 1997). But in Germany and France it's almost twice that amount. But their predicament is a matter for concern. They are amongst our biggest markets -- not least for manufactured goods produced here in North East Lancashire. So the better that Germany and France's economies are doing, the better it is for jobs and prosperity in our own backyard.

One reason for slow growth in Europe is too much red-tape. So we're working with France and Germany to cut over-regulation, such as an unacceptable proposal from the EU Commission to tighten regulation on large chemical industries.

Together, we have seen these proposals off. The three of us are also calling for a cut in the EU's budget -- again, if it comes off, something of direct benefit to business and individual taxpayers in our area. And on foreign policy, too, we can work effectively together. On Iran's development of a nuclear capability, for example, we have achieved much more than if we'd tried to act alone - or at 25.

France and Germany were two of six founder members of the EU. We joined 16 years later, in 1973. In the past, Britain was always on the edge, with little influence. Not any more. Our national interests demand that we work as co-operatively as we can with all our EU partners -- and that includes the two countries with whom we have, at times, had the most complicated of relationships.