France-Germany relations
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| France | Germany |
The relations between France and Germany is embodied in a cooperation called Franco-German Partnership (French: Amitié franco-allemande; German: Deutsch-Französische Freundschaft). This came about after 1945, when a French-German enmity between the two countries ended. This three-century-old enmity had led to two World Wars.
Especially in the context of the European Union, the cooperation between the countries reaches immense coordination and collaboration. Even though France has at times been eurosceptical in outlook, especially under President de Gaulle, Franco-German agreements and cooperations have always been key to furthering the ideals of European integration.
In recent times, France and Germany are among the most enthusiastic proponents of the further integration of the EU. They are sometimes described as the "twin engine" or "core countries" pushing for moves. This agenda is facing relative opposition from those adhering to a Eurosceptic ideology.
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[edit] History
With the threat of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Germany sought its national security in the re-integration into Western Europe, while France sought after a re-establishment as a Grande Nation. The post-war Franco-German cooperation is based on the Élysée Treaty, which was signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer on January 22, 1963. The treaty contained a number of agreements for joint cooperation in foreign policy, economic and military integration and exchange of student education.
The treaty was signed under difficult political situations at that time and criticized both by opposition parties in France and Germany, as well as from the United Kingdom and the United States. Opposition from the United Kingdom and the United States was answered by an added preamble which postulated a close cooperation with those (including NATO) and a targeted German reunification.
The treaty achieved a lot in initiating European integration and a stronger Franco-German co-position in transatlantic relations.
The initial concept for the Franco-German cooperation however dates back a lot further than the Elysée Treaty and is based on the overcoming the centuries of Franco-German hostilities within Europe. It was compared to a re-establishment of Charlemagne's European empire before the divide by the Treaty of Verdun in 843 AD.
The Schuman declaration of 1950 is regarded by some as the founding of Franco-German cooperation, as well as the of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) of 1951, which included also Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The cooperation was accompanied by strong personal alliance in various degrees:
- Adenauer and De Gaulle
- Helmut Schmidt and Giscard d'Estaing
- François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl.
- Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, with Sarkozy making a visit on the day of his inauguration as president
[edit] Alliances
[edit] Political alliances
As early as 1994 - a time of the EU12 - the German Christian Democrats Wolfgang Schäuble and Karl Lamers published a pamphlet in which they called for a Kerneuropa (= core Europe). This came in response to a slowing down European integration by eurosceptic member states while many Europeans in "core Europe" states ask for a stronger Europe. Those countries typically include France, Germany and the Benelux, as well as Austria and Spain.[citation needed] The core Europe idea envisaged that it would have a 'centripetal effect', a magnetic attraction for the rest of Europe.
Yet, the emergence of a "core social Europe" is highly unlikely.[citation needed] Such a policy would contradict the structural reform agenda that has marked the German social-democratic government and would also be at odds with Berlin's general support for further enlargement.
Other practical problems of a possible core Europe are that France and Germany find it hard to establish agreement within various policy areas. Both countries want to strengthen European defence forces, but Germany is cutting its defence spending. Both France and Germany would like to boost the EU's foreign policy, but France no longer supports Germany's call for majority voting in foreign policy. On asylum and migration policies, the two countries have quite different approaches, and progress in other areas of justice and home affairs has been slow.
However the two countries manage a common European policy in regard to European integration and also foreign affairs, a strong example of this is the Iraq War that aligned the Franco-German alliance with Russia in opposition to American foreign policy.
Former French President Jacques Chirac has stated his desire to see Europe as a counterweight to American power against what some see as increasingly predatory American politics in the Middle East.[citation needed]
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty in 2003, the EU Commissioners Pascal Lamy (France) and Günter Verheugen (Germany) presented the so-called Lamy-Verheugen Plan that proposes a factual unification of France and Germany (e.g. unified armed forces).
[edit] Economic alliances
The government of the two nations are making enormous efforts to merge the biggest enterprises of the Franco-German industrial alliance, it is interesting to note that once united the Franco-Germans enterprises often rise to world leadership in their respective fields.[citation needed]
- European Space Agency (with many other European states)
- EADS (with two CEOs)
- Airbus (also present in the UK and Spain)
Franco-German collaborative enterprises include;
[edit] Cultural alliances
- Promotion of French and German language in both countries. At the same time, France does not actively promote the Germanic Alsatian language dialect in Alsace, leading to a decline of use among the younger population who are not attracted to "the language of the old people".
[edit] Relations with the United Kingdom
Outside of France and Germany, the role of Franco-German cooperation with regards to EU agenda setting is frequently perceived as an example of big countries pushing their agenda in the EU to the expense of smaller nations.[citation needed]
It has also been seen as a vehicle to exclude the UK from a central role in EU decision making, those three nations being viewed as the main large nations of the EU, which has been easy to project given the UK's traditionally different views on the issue of Europe and European integration, leaning to euroscepticism and neoliberalism internally and Atlanticism externally.[citation needed]
Also the belief that Europe, and in particular the French and Germans, would be weak when dealing with foreign aggressors, has caused some in the United Kingdom to look to the anglosphere for their closest allies.[citation needed]
[edit] External perceptions
[edit] Transatlantic relations
[edit] See also
- Anglo-French relations
- Anglo-German relations
- Transatlantic relations
- Franco-American relations
- German-American relations
[edit] Bibliography
- (French)(English) Guy Lebègue, (trad. Robert J. Amral), « Satellites: 30 Years of Franco-German Cooperation », in Revue aerospatiale, n°89, June 1992.
[edit] External links
- Coordinator of Franco-German Cooperation
- La Gazette de Berlin The Newspaper in French for Germany (1 Page in German)
- Franco-German network
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