Franco-German rift threatens to cancel joint Cabinet meeting – POLITICO

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is considering postponing a meeting of the French and German governments planned for next week because of concerns over a lack of progress in areas of supposed cooperation such as energy and defense, according to several French government officials.

Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as well as their Cabinets, are scheduled to meet in Fontainebleau south of Paris next Wednesday for their yearly Franco-German ministerial council — the first such meeting since Scholz’s three-party coalition took office at the end of last year. The leaders are planning to sign a joint declaration to promote bilateral cooperation and European integration in various areas, but less than one week ahead of the meeting, both sides are still wrangling over key passages of the text.

Postponing the planned high-level meeting would be read as a sign of significant strain on the partnership, at a time when Berlin and Paris are already at loggerheads over various issues such as how to combat the energy crisis and whether to build the Midcat pipeline project running from the Iberian Peninsula to northern Europe.

One French government official cited energy and defense cooperation — on joint projects including the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) fighter jet and the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) tank — as areas where progress has been found wanting.

“There isn’t enough progress on topics [of discussion], so it’s possible the council will be postponed to give us more time to work on them,” said a French government official. 

“There are complexities, France and Germany don’t always agree,” the official said, adding that Scholz and Macron could also decide to go ahead with the planned meeting but only agree on general principles, without signing a declaration. 

Two officials in Berlin acknowledged that talks with France on the text of the joint declaration were ongoing, also citing defense and energy as two areas of ongoing discussions. However, the officials said they were not aware of plans to postpone the ministerial council. A German government spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

The Franco-German government meetings have been taking place since 2003 and at least once a year, but were canceled in 2020 and only held via videoconference in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Expectations for this year’s meeting are particularly high as it would be the first in-person meeting of both governments for three years, and as both sides have expressed strong interest in boosting cooperation, especially in the area of defense where Europe’s lack of autonomy has been laid bare by the war in Ukraine.

In floating a rescheduling of the meeting, France might be trying to accelerate negotiations in the final stretch.

Most recently, Macron and Scholz have publicly disagreed over the Midcat pipeline project. At pains to wean itself off of Russian gas, Germany wants to push through building the pipeline, which could transport gas and later green hydrogen, while France wants to prioritize nuclear power — one of France’s key energy assets, which could also be used for the production of hydrogen.

Another French official sought to downplay a possible rescheduling, arguing that France and Germany are nevertheless in constant conversation and that defense cooperation had its “ups and downs.”

The two countries have struggled to breathe life into their military partnerships despite Germany’s decision to massively invest in defense in the wake of the Ukraine war. The FCAS fighter jet project, for example, has been dogged by delays and disagreements over leadership.