Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Paris for the first work meeting on Friday, when the two strongest EU leaders will start the search for a joint foundation to overcome the crisis in the block and so on.
Towards the agenda, French officials said it would be a tension over Ukraine, which according to US officials could face the Russian invasion early next year, and the priority of Macron for the European Union presidency of six months of France, which began on January 1 Macron developed friendly relationships with old predecessors Scholz Angela Merkel, who went bankrupt with the German tradition by supporting efforts to increase shared debt that had never been before during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the two leaders were also at odds with some major problems including German gas imports from Russia – who denied plans to attack Ukraine – how to defend Europe and its relationship with other major competitors including China.
Other UE countries have also worked to falsify the mini alliance – such as four of the Western fiscal or Visegrad four Western countries in Eastern Europe – some to correct the imbalances perceived from Franco-German coordination efforts.
“It’s good when we have a Franco-German couple who walked well …
but it was never enough,” Marion Gillard, a French-German relations experts at the Po Politing Studies Institute in Paris said.
French diplomats look optimistic about the prospects for the bond with Germany under Scholz, citing “strategic sovereignty” in the coalition agreement that took him to the power they said echoing Macron’s urge for “strategic autonomy”.
Another major problem is how to finance the transition to greener energy and whether nuclear energy and natural gas can be considered by the EU as extended – and therefore – sources.
Macron wants to build a new nuclear reactor in France, while the German plan for their phase is well established.
However, the new German coalition agreement did not mention this problem, leaving room for compromise, Paris believed.