Macron shakes up Franco-German axis in the name of EU defence: “We must work for ourselves”

Brussels – Twenty-four years later, a French president pays a state visit to his German neighbour. The last had been Jaques Chirac in 2000. Emmanuel Macron’s three-day visit to Germany, at a crucial time for the future of the EU—with the Russian threat at Europe’s doorstep and European elections around the corner—is an appeal to Berlin to work together to “help ourselves and have a framework of security.”

The transalpine leader took the stage: first in Dresden with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, then at the presentation of the Westphalian International Peace Prize, which he was awarded, and finally today (May 28), in his meeting with Prime Minister Olaf Scholz. The topics of this latest bilateral were anticipated in a joint op-ed published in the Financial Times, in which the two leaders presented an “ambitious” proposal to boost the European Union’s competitiveness ahead of the next term. “Europe must thrive as a strong world-class industrial and technological leader as we implement our ambition to make the EU the first climate-neutral continent. To live up to these shared ambitions, Germany and France are convinced that the EU needs more innovation, more single market, more investment, more equity and less bureaucracy,” Paris and Berlin argue.

But the leitmotif of Macron’s German appearances is, above all, the need to strengthen the bloc’s common defence. “NATO alone cannot save us. We have to help ourselves and have a security framework, and this is a strategic decision,” he pressed the audience during the presentation of the Westphalian Peace Prize in Münster. Because “Russia will be here tomorrow, the day after,” he said in his speech in front of the Dresden cathedral. The French president then evoked the upcoming European elections, saying that today, “more than ever, we must choose the future of our continent.” A future threatened by the far right, called an “evil wind” blowing in Europe.

The German chancellor grasped the hand extended by his transalpine colleague and, at the press conference on the sidelines of the Franco-German summit, confirmed that Berlin and Paris ”want to strengthen Europe’s security and defence against any threat now and in the future.” Scholz announced that the EU’s two largest industrial powers are ready to ”further expand close cooperation in the fields of security, defence and armaments, particularly in the development of precision ranged weapons.”

A “logical consequence” of the Russian attack on Ukraine, which remains the priority. “Emmanuel and I agree that it is necessary to take support for Kyiv to a new level. We want to give Ukraine access to additional financial resources to reliably ensure its defence and the security of all of Europe can be further increased,” Scholz continued. All this while, in Brussels, the defence ministers of the 27 countries debated with NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg about their commitments to Kyiv on air defence systems and munitions and the need to increase defence industrial production in Europe.

The French president cashed in on endorsements from Steinmeier, who is convinced that “the fact that France and Germany are so close today is also due to people like you,” and the outgoing president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who is running for a second term and was present at the ceremony in Münster. The EU leader echoed Macron’s words, insisting that the old continent is now “at an unprecedented moment in our history when we have to think about our defence and our security on our own and for ourselves as Europeans.”