[en] Within the cooperation between Framatome SA and Siemens AG in the field of Pressurized Water Reactors, Nuclear Power International (NPI) was established in 1989. The basic objectives of this joint venture are the marketing of PWRs and the development of a common French-German technology for the next generation of PWRs. The organization and the time schedule of the development work are described. Basic safety trends are indicated and the main technical features of this reactor (safety systems on the primary side, secondary-side heat-removal systems, reactor building and containment, instrumentation and control) are outlined, as they are proposed today to the French and German utilities by NPI, Framatome and Siemens. Tentative safety probabilistic target: no family of events should lead to a core melt frequency higher than 10^-7/year and the overall core melt frequency should not be higher than 10^-6/year. The overall strategy for severe accidents is defined in such a way that the probability of high pressure core melt scenarios should be reduced by providing a highly reliable secondary-side heat removal and safety-grade primary bleed functions to a level significantly below 10^-7/year. (Z.S.) 6 figs