After months of friction, the Franco-German tandem of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tried to give a new impetus to the relationship between France and Germany by focusing on an agenda of increased sovereignty for the European Union on Sunday 22 January in Paris, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty.
With “the return of war to our continent, its energy and economic consequences”, in addition to the major climate and digital transitions, “our objective is the same, that of a more sovereign, more united Europe, fully in control of its destiny”, said Mr Macron at the end of a Franco-German Council of Ministers. In a world of 10 billion people, “France, Germany (...) will only be able to play a role if we act together”, Mr Scholz assured.
The French President highlighted “a great deal of convergence and synchronicity” between the two governments, underlining their “total determination” to support Ukraine for as long as necessary so that it can defend itself from Russian’s military aggression, as well as the “solidarity” shown in the energy crisis with agreements to deliver gas to Germany and electricity to France. No one could have said a year ago that we would have to part with 50% of our gas supply, stated Mr Scholz, who said that this forced development had been achieved “without a major crisis” - despite soaring prices - thanks to “European solidarity”.
IRA. According to Mr Macron, the two political leaders are defending the line set out in Davos by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on a European response to the US IRA law (see EUROPE 13101/9): negotiations with the US to obtain the same treatment as Canada and Mexico, the establishment of an industrial plan accompanied by European regulation and “funding mechanisms” to support and facilitate the development of ‘green’ technologies in Europe.
“The EU must not be treated worse than Canada” said Olaf Scholz, confident that an agreement will be reached with Washington “in the first quarter”. According to him, existing European aid is “far too bureaucratic and unpredictable”. He defended “a differentiated approach” depending on the sector, based on a diagnosis that the Commission will present at the beginning of February, a few days before the extraordinary European summit on 9 and 10 February.
But the German social democrat did not mention the question of financing, while France wants to create innovative European financial instruments inspired by the SURE instrument for temporary aid to compensate for short-time working schemes, set up to deal with the economic downturn during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Macron also called for an in-depth reform of the electricity market, while the Franco-German declaration states that both countries will work on “improving” the functioning of this market. France and Germany promise to work on a common “roadmap” to build a European hydrogen market, including renewable and low-carbon hydrogen (with Germany’s participation in the H2Med project between Spain and France).
Institutional reform. France and Germany say they are “open” to revising the treaties, if necessary to prepare the EU for future enlargements. In the short term, they advocate qualified majority voting in the EU Council “to overcome the deadlocks that have been observed, such as on certain areas of Common Foreign and Security Policy and taxation”.
A group of 12 experts, including former MEP Pervenche Berès (S&D, French), will be tasked with making recommendations on EU institutional reforms by the autumn.
See the French-German joint declaration: https://aeur.eu/f/515
See the conclusions of the French-German Defence and Security Council (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/50t (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)