At a ceremony at the Sorbonne University in Paris, Macron said that Germany and France were like “two souls in one breast” for him. “For a Frenchman, speaking about Germany means speaking about a part of yourself,” Macron said in front of more than 30 ministers from both governments and around 200 members of parliament.
The cabinets and parliaments of both countries came together in Paris to celebrate the anniversary. Scholz thanked the “French brothers and sisters” in French for their friendship. Scholz regarded the differences of opinion between the two countries as normal in such close cooperation.
“We can’t afford a small, despondent Europe”
The “German-French engine” was “marked by hard work,” said the German Chancellor. “He doesn’t get his drive from sweet cuddles and empty symbolism. But because of our firm will to always convert controversies and differences of interest into aligned action.”
Scholz and Macron called for a more self-confident role for the EU in the world. “We may be facing an even greater turning point. A turning point towards a multipolar world that we cannot face by retreating into our national snail shell,” said Scholz.
One could no longer afford “a small, despondent Europe” that indulged in national egoism and opened up rifts between East and West, North and South. Both underlined to strong applause that the EU would continue to support Ukraine against the Russian aggressor. “Putin’s imperialism will not win,” said Scholz.
Macron: Paris and Berlin as pioneers
Macron demanded that Germany and France should be pioneers in the reestablishment of Europe. He pointed out that at a meeting in Versailles last March, the EU had already resolved to reduce strategic dependencies in the energy, military and food sectors. But there is still a lot to do.
The German chancellor referred to the necessary enlargement of the EU and the need to reduce the right of veto in decisions within the Union. Macron and Scholz also mentioned the European recovery fund with a volume of 750 billion euros, which had been agreed to overcome the consequences of the pandemic.
With a view to the French call for a new solidarity fund to be added, the French President added that the EU was responsible “for our decisions that we make and our decisions that we don’t make”. Scholz has reservations about a new fund and only a few days ago pointed out that only 20 percent of the amount in the solidarity fund had been paid out at all.
Praise for reconciliation after World War II
The reconciliation between the two countries after the Second World War was praised in several speeches at a ceremony at the Sorbonne University in Paris. A few days ago in Berlin, the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned that two countries wanted to lead the EU.
The Franco-German Council of Ministers was actually supposed to take place last autumn, but had been postponed. The meeting of the Franco-German Council of Ministers was surprisingly canceled in October. The German side justified this with the ongoing need for coordination. At the time, it was said from the Elysee that the important issues of defense and energy had to be discussed further.
