France and Germany promise to be the engine of Europe and strengthen their support for Ukraine

The leaders of France and Germany pledged this Sunday to be an engine for Europe and goes on support Ukraine “as long as necessary”in an act in which they celebrated 60 years of Franco-German cooperation.

“The future, like the past, is based on the cooperation of our two countries” as “locomotive of united Europe”said the head of the German government, Olaf Scholz, on a visit to Paris this Sunday on the occasion of the anniversary of the Elysee Treaty.

The alliance between France and Germany was tested by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a whole series of geopolitical changes.

“We will continue to give Ukraine as long as necessary all the support it needs,” Scholz said in a speech at the Sorbonne University.

At his side, French President Emmanuel Macron has promised “infallible support” from both countries to the Ukrainian people, “in all sectors”. And he underlined his commitment to work for the EU to be “a geopolitical power in its own right, in defence, space and diplomacy”.

The fight for tanks

Both leaders made these statements afterwards Berlin’s refusal to supply Ukraine with German-made Leopard tanks, which Volodimir Zelensky’s government says it deals more effectively with Russian forces.

The Berlin location has received numerous critics, the latest of them this Sunday from Poland. Its prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, called Germany’s refusal to hand over its Leopards or at least to authorize other countries to supply Kiev with those they have “unacceptable”.

In France, meanwhile, there are various political figures asking Paris to take the “initiative” by sending a limited number of tanks Leclerc in Ukraine.

After the event at the Sorbonne, Scholz and Macron had scheduled a joint ministerial meeting.

The two leaders have a cold relationship, with “structural problems that go beyond personal relationships,” said Jacob Ross, a researcher at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.

The friction reaches the public: 36% of French respondents and 39% of Germans told Ipsos this week that the relationship is deteriorating.

key cooperation

The 1963 Elysee Treaty signed between postwar leaders Konrad Adenauer of Germany and Charles de Gaulle of France ranged from military cooperation to youth exchanges.

Since then, France and Germany have often laid the groundwork for any joint European bloc response, within a broad agenda that now includes the conflict in Ukraine, climate, energy and Europe’s competitiveness in the face of a new wave of subsidies in the United States.

Ross points out that part of the problem is that France clings to a historical perception as a sovereign power, with a nuclear arsenal and a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

On the contrary, in recent decades Germany has willingly delegated defense matters to the United States.

but there is signs of change both.

On the French side, the government has reactivated its role in NATO after the invasion of Ukraine and Germany has invested 108 billion dollars for modernize their armed forces.

At the same time, the joint development of next-generation aircraft and tanks is lagging behind, and France is not participating in the 14-nation Sky Shield anti-missile initiative led by Germany.

Beyond defense issuestrade and energy challenges they affect both countries equally.

For Berlin “things are very complicated because Germany’s economic model is being tested,” said Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, former French ambassador to Berlin.

Without cheap Russian gas or nuclear power, Germany has been forced to switch back to coal in part, as renewables cannot yet fill the deficit. France, in turn, is trying to repair and replace its crumbling nuclear reactor park.

Source: AFP

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