The fire had been smoldering for several months. It broke out on the eve of a European Council which promised to be stormy, Thursday 20 and Friday 21 October, in Brussels. Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz decided on Wednesday to postpone the next Franco-German council of ministers, scheduled for October 26 in Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne). This is the third time that this important bilateral meeting, which was originally scheduled to take place in July, has been postponed. In Berlin, we promise that it will finally take place in January 2023. In Paris, we are less certain.
To save appearances, the French president and the German chancellor have certainly programmed a tete-a-tete in Brussels, Thursday at the beginning of the afternoon, before finding their European counterparts. But this meeting should not deceive: by deciding to cancel a Franco-German Council of Ministers twenty-four hours before a summit of Twenty-Seven, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz could not indicate more clearly to what extent the subjects of discord between Paris and Berlin are difficult to overcome.
Officially, the postponement of the Fontainebleau meeting would be linked in particular to problems with the agenda of the German ministers of defense and foreign affairs. As a sign of goodwill, Olaf Scholz would however have offered to come to Paris alone to meet Emmanuel Macron. A suggestion that the Elysée Palace did not comment on, preferring to focus, Wednesday afternoon, on the substantive issues that are hampering Franco-German cooperation. “We are currently working on important subjects which relate to questions of sovereignty”explained the French presidency, suggesting that the discussions are not advanced enough at this stage for a Franco-German council to be held on October 26 and for it to be an opportunity to make strong announcements.
Divergences on defense and energy
On the German side, there is no denying the existence of disagreements. “There are a whole series of subjects (…) on which we have not yet arrived at a common position”, recognized, Wednesday, the spokesman of the government, Steffen Hebestreit. Did these differences justify postponing the next Franco-German Council of Ministers, a meeting that has been held on average once a year since 2003? In Berlin, not everyone agrees. “Macron was apparently very keen to show tangible progress at the end of this meeting. For us, I think that it was not as important and that, even without strong announcements at the key, this moment of dialogue between our two governments could still have taken place ”believes a good connoisseur of the file, on the German side.
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