Enlarge image
Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz
PHOTO: JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP
The Franco-German government consultations planned for next week have been postponed to January.
The spokesman for the federal government, Steffen Hebestreit, said in Berlin on Wednesday that there were a number of bilateral issues on which the federal government was in close consultation with the French side.
"These votes will take some time." Some ministers who were scheduled in the format could not have attended due to other commitments.
"Together with the French side, we decided today that it makes sense to move it by a few weeks."
Hebestreit said he was "very, very confident" that the consultations would then be held in January.
There are also considerations that Chancellor Olaf Scholz will meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris next Wednesday.
Scholz is known to be in very close contact with Macron.
The next talks between the two have been firmly agreed before the EU summit in Brussels, which begins on Thursday.
Reuters had previously reported, citing diplomatic circles, that there were a number of inconsistencies between Germany and France, including on energy policy.
In diplomatic circles it was said that the reason for the need for advice was above all the dissent as to how far-reaching the agreements on the consultations planned in Fontainebleau should be.
Macron wanted far-reaching agreements, but not Scholz.
Disappointment with the intensity of the cooperation was expressed in French government circles after Macron met Scholz on October 3.
Scholz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez recently adopted a comprehensive bilateral action plan at a German-Spanish government meeting.
The German side had not planned anything similar with France.
It was said that distrust was aroused in Paris.
It was also carefully noted that Scholz made virtually no mention of Franco-German cooperation in his speech on European policy in Prague.
It was also irritating in Paris that the Chancellery, as its closest partner, had not been informed in advance of the EUR 200 billion aid package in the energy crisis.
Like Spain's government, Scholz recently criticized the fact that Macron - a liberal pro-European - is opposed to the construction of a gas pipeline from Spain through France to Germany, which will later also bring hydrogen from the Iberian Peninsula to Central Europe.
Both governments also have different ideas about the future of nuclear power.
At the same time, there are problems with joint armaments projects such as a battle tank and the FCAS combat aircraft and air defense system.
However, Macron had recently given up his opposition to the Western Balkan states being brought closer to the EU more quickly, which Scholz insists on.
Diplomatic circles have warned that a cancellation of consultations between the traditionally closest partners at this time of crisis could be interpreted as a sign of serious problems in Franco-German relations.
The argument against a postponement was that one could not afford this at the moment in view of the Russian attack on Ukraine, but the expected rise of a right-wing government in Italy.
dop/Reuters