France and Germany met on Sunday to mend an alliance strained, among other things, by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
All German ministers went to Paris to attend conferences on security, energy and other issues in Europe, and while both sides tried to work out their differences, about 300 parliamentarians gathered at the Sorbonne.
“Germany and France… must be the vanguard of rebuilding Europe,” said President Emmanuel Macron in a lyrical speech at a prestigious French university.
He described his neighbors as “two souls in one breast”.
The day coincides with the 60th anniversary of the treaty signed between the historical foes that underpinned the European Union.
“brother couple”
Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz held two meetings at the Elysée Palace, first focusing on energy and economic policy, then on defense.
“The future, like the past, is based on cooperation between the two countries,” Scholz said, likening the pair to “a unified European locomotive.”
Together they were able to overcome their “differences”.
But behind the glitz are many flashpoints between Berlin and Paris.
Top Sunday’s agenda was devising Europe’s response to U.S. subsidies to electric car makers and other green businesses as part of President Biden’s inflation-cutting bill, officials said.
With a possible US-EU trade war looming for months, Brussels has called Washington’s pledged €356 billion in aid to US industries protectionist and discriminatory.
France wants Europe to counter what it sees as an illegitimate move by the United States.
Paris calls on the EU to loosen rules on state subsidies for faster distribution, simplify bloc investment support, and create an EU sovereign fund to boost green industries.
But Berlin warns against protectionism.
war in ukraine
European neighbors also discussed military aid to Ukraine, according to French and German officials who were not authorized to release them.
Both provide vital support, but Kyiv is now calling for heavy tanks and more powerful weapons as Russia steps up its offensive.
The war has exposed strategic differences and Berlin is now under fire for refusing to give Ukraine its coveted Leopard 2 tanks.
Scholz said at the Sorbonne that France and Germany “will continue to provide Ukraine with all necessary assistance for as long as it is needed.”
“Vladimir Putin’s imperialism will not win,” he argued.
Further friction arises over how to deal with the resulting energy crisis and inflation, and over future military investments.
Sunday’s rally was the first face-to-face joint government meeting since 2019. Originally scheduled for October, it was repeatedly postponed.
Officials celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Elysee, signed on January 22, 1963, by French President and wartime leader Charles de Gaulle and West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
Both Macron and Scholz called for a more “sovereign” Europe, achieved by increasing investment in defense and industry.
