Relationships heating up? French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on Friday to strengthen the “sovereignty” of the European Union, in a joint forum published on Friday night, two days before the Franco-German Council of Ministers.
It is a key challenge for the EU “to ensure that Europe is even more sovereign and has the geopolitical capacities to shape the international order,” he writes in the newspaper. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and in the Sunday newspaper French and German leaders, ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty.
Europe must, according to them, “invest more and now in our armed forces and in our defense industries in Europe.
“Improved European capabilities and a stronger European pillar within NATO also make us a stronger partner across the Atlantic and in the United States: better equipped, more efficient and more powerful,” they point out.
Emmanuel Macron also promised the armies on Friday a budget of 400 billion euros over seven years as part of the future military programming law (LPM), that is, a third more than the previous LPM, in the context of the return of the war in Europe since the Russian invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago.
Anniversary of the Élysée Treaty
After months of doubts, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz have the challenge of relaunching the Franco-German tandem on Sunday in Paris, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Reconciliation Treaty between the two countries.
This agreement has allowed “decades, even centuries, of bitter rivalries and bloody wars between our two countries in the heart of Europe to be overcome,” argue the two presidents.
European sovereignty should not be measured only in military terms but also in the capacities of “resilience and to act prospectively in strategic areas”. This implies a diversification of “strategic supply goods”, they add.
A “climate neutral” continent
Europe must also do everything possible to “become the first climate neutral continent in the world”. Macron and Scholz cite as other objectives that Europe become “a world leader in production and innovation” and that “economic and social progress go hand in hand with an ecological transition”.
Regarding the “values and principles” of the EU, the two leaders believe that “imports into the European Union must respect our standards in terms of security and human rights” and want to “guarantee free movement, in particular for students and more effective controls at the external borders”.
The festivities promise to be quite formal on Sunday with a ceremony at the Sorbonne in the morning followed by a Franco-German council of ministers at the Elysee, the very one that had been postponed in late October against the backdrop of bilateral dissent.
Source: BFM TV
