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Pact on Kiev, agreement returns between Macron and Scholz

2023-01-23T10:31:59.218Z


(HANDLE) PARIS, JAN 22 - Support for Ukraine "for as long as necessary", an "irreducible" support against Russian aggression: on the issue of the conflict that had divided them, France and Germany are once again uniting, in the name of " defense of the European peace". And they do it in Paris, at the Sorbonne, with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz side by side to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Elysée


PARIS, JAN 22 - Support for Ukraine "for as long as necessary", an "irreducible" support against Russian aggression: on the issue of the conflict that had divided them, France and Germany are once again uniting, in the name of " defense of the European peace".

And they do it in Paris, at the Sorbonne, with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz side by side to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty and to relaunch the Franco-German European "locomotive".

"We will continue to provide Ukraine, as long as necessary, with all the support it needs", said the German chancellor, who underlined that Paris and Berlin will do so "together, as Europeans, to defend their European peace project".

Macron went a small step further: "Nothing is excluded" he replied - at the end of the Franco-German Council of Ministers which followed the ceremony at the Sorbonne - to those who asked him if France will also supply Ukraine with tanks heavy Leclercs.

"Irreducible support" from the two driving countries of Europe to the Ukrainian people "in all sectors", were the words of Macron at the Sorbonne, pronounced alongside the German ally.

And, despite the difficulties which in recent months have seen France and Germany struggling to keep together the alliance sanctioned by the Elysée Treaty, "after 24 February, our union has neither divided nor vanished in the face of its responsibility," added the French head of state.

After difficult times bordering on incomprehension on various dossiers, Macron and Scholz have returned from the stage of the great amphitheater of the Sorbonne to proclaim their "indestructible friendship", amid national anthems and solemn speeches.

On the anniversary of the treaty signed 60 years ago by their predecessors Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer to establish reconciliation after the war, the president and the chancellor once again took the lead in Europe, in front of an audience made up of deputies, ministers and young students of the two countries.

In the afternoon, everyone gathered around the table at the Elysée for the 23rd Franco-German council of ministers.

The differences remain, Scholz was not explicit on Leopard 2 like Macron on Leclerc, but the chancellor has fully subscribed to the call for "responsibility".

Citing Robert Schuman, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and even Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the chancellor celebrated the concept of "European sovereignty" which remains Macron's trademark in his 2017 speech at the Sorbonne.

"The Franco-German engine - said Scholz - is a mechanism for compromises" capable of "transforming disputes into convergent action".

Macron responded by calling for "a more united Europe and fully in control of its destiny".

To close the friction between Paris and Berlin, Macron paid homage to the speech on Europe delivered by Scholz in Prague in August, precisely the one on which the criticisms of French diplomatic circles focused for the absence, in the chancellor's speech, of any reference to the Franco-German couple.

The council of ministers held today was initially supposed to take place in October, but due to those disagreements it was postponed: "The Franco-German couple must always reinvent itself", Macron recommended, according to which the two countries must build "together a new energy model" and "an ambitious European industrial strategy" in the face of the recent US Inflation Act.

In a forum published today by Le Journal du Dimanche and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the two leaders wrote that France and Germany are committed to working "respecting national choices regarding the energy mix, in particular thanks to renewable energies, low carbon emissions, energy efficiency and hydrogen, which we will produce and import."

Source: ansa

All news articles on 2023-01-23

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