European policy will make its comeback under the sun of the Côte d'Azur. Emmanuel Macron will receive this Thursday Angela Merkel at Fort Brégançon to try to strengthen the understanding of the Franco-German couple. This is the first time that the German Chancellor will discover the summer residence of French presidents, in Bormes-les-Mimosas in the Var.
A busy schedule
But Angela Merkel will hardly have time to take advantage of it because, with a bilateral meeting, a press conference and a working dinner, the atmosphere will be above all studious. At the end of the summer, “the international agenda is particularly busy”, underlines the Elysee, listing the subjects that should be addressed: the continuation of the Covid-19 epidemic, the crises in Mali, Belarus and in Lebanon, tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, Brexit and the next European deadlines.
On all these issues, Berlin and Paris share a “high level of convergence”, we say in the entourage of the president, welcoming the “renewed vigor” of the “Franco-German couple”. This agreement was also ostensibly displayed a month ago by Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron at the “historic” European summit in Brussels.
Regarding the coronavirus, strong cooperation between the 27 is deemed necessary by the two leaders. The continuation of the pandemic pushed Angela Merkel to exclude this week any further relaxation of the sanitary rules in force in Germany. Emmanuel Macron, for his part, mentioned, in an interview with Paris Match published on Thursday, the possibility of a "targeted re-containment that could be implemented if the situation required it". Paris and Berlin also want, according to the Elysee, that the Europeans agree, "on a common basis", on the measures taken at the borders in order to avoid the repetition of the hiccups caused by unilateral decisions at the start of the crisis. .
France more offensive on Turkey
Other hot topics include persistent tensions with Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean, an issue on which France is more offensive than Germany against Ankara. In the interview in Paris Match , Emmanuel Macron considers that his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan is leading "an expansionist policy which mixes nationalism and Islamism, which is not compatible with European interests" and is "a factor of destabilization". Germany, for its part, is trying to mediate between Greece and Turkey, for the moment at a standstill.
The discussion should also focus on the major European issues that Germany hopes to see progress during its EU presidency which ends in December. In particular on the climate, with commitments to be made to make Europe the first CO2-neutral continent by 2050. Finally, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron will take stock of the difficult Brexit negotiations, which resumed on Tuesday without having really progressed in recent months.
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