Germany and France cannot be divided by the energy shock.

That is the conviction of French President Emmanuel Macron after several talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).

In the Elysée Palace on Wednesday, the impression that Paris was angry about the German energy price relief package of 200 billion euros by 2024 was rejected.

Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

  • Follow I follow

As early as autumn 2021, France began protecting private households and small companies from the explosion in energy prices.

According to the Elysée Palace, almost 120 billion euros have been spent on various relief measures since then.

Any concerns about the "double boom" in Paris focus on the consequences for the economic cohesion of the EU.

Nevertheless, France sees itself as responsible.

As the economically strongest countries in the EU, the Franco-German duo is particularly important.

The mistakes of the 2010 debt crisis should not be repeated.

No massive joint borrowing as with the reconstruction fund

President Macron agreed with Chancellor Scholz in a three-hour meeting in Berlin on Monday evening.

On Tuesday, further details were clarified in a video conference with Scholz, in which EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen took part alongside Macron in the Elysée Palace.

Macron sees the prospects as good that the federal government will support a push by the EU Commission to help those EU states that do not have as large budget reserves as Germany.

According to the French President, this should not be about a joint massive borrowing like the reconstruction fund after the pandemic, but about a temporary instrument based on the model of the European unemployment reinsurance SURE.

That does not meet the demands of EU Commissioners Thierry Breton and Paolo Gentiloni, who Macron believes are going too far.

A massive investment package has little chance of success.

Macron expressed understanding for the constraints of the federal government.

Despite Ukraine's current military successes, France expects a long war of attrition.

The EU must therefore rethink its model in the long term.

The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine put an end to the German and thus also the European economic model of competitiveness based on cheap Russian gas supplies for industry.

From the Frenchman's point of view, Germany has already made a remarkable about-face in terms of energy and security policy.

Now it's about being able to hold out and making sure that the EU as a whole emerges stronger from the war.

The European neighbors outside the EU must also be included.

The first meeting of the European Political Community this Thursday in Prague with 44 countries, including Great Britain and Turkey, is an important step in this direction.

Different reflexes in Berlin and Paris

Spontaneously, things are often difficult at first between Paris and Berlin because they don't have the same reflexes.

But under the French EU Council Presidency, it was possible to agree on far-reaching sanctions and to overcome differences in the EU accession issues.

The energy supply was changed within a very short time.

From the French President's point of view, better gas prices could have been negotiated if the German and Italian governments had agreed to joint European purchases from the start.

Above all, it is important that everyone has agreed on a common approach to gas purchases in the future.

A gas price cap based on the Iberian model is also considered acceptable in the Elysée Palace.

Again, Macron looks with understanding at the German concern

However, he believes this concern is unfounded.

You have to talk to the USA about the prices for liquid gas.

President Biden is by far the most European president in Washington for a long time.

But the fact that the Americans sell liquefied gas to the Europeans three times as much as to their own industry is not sustainable in the long term.

As indispensable as US military aid is to Ukraine, it should not be used as an excuse for Europeans to cut back on European defence.

European sovereignty is more than ever decisive for the outcome of the war.