Sensing for its Chancellor’s efforts Germany, Friedrich Mertz For his efforts to strengthen European unity against US President Donald Trump’s attacks, Euroscepticist Carol Navrotsky’s victory in the Polish presidential election.
This makes Germany’s cooperation with France even more important, according to Handelsblatt. Mertz and French President Emmanuel Macron are pursuing a new beginning in their relationships to tackle Trump.
A ‘Restart’ He is discussed in Berlin and Paris, reports the same (3.6.25) report. And that The day before Merz visits Trump in Washington. Governments are going to develop specific initiatives by the end of the summer and consultations between the respective ministers have already begun. ‘The narrow French-German coordination’ should serve a ‘Most dominant Europe’Merz and Macron wrote in a common newspaper article in May.
Handelsblatt has now received the Internal agenda for the French-German “reboot”. The guiding principle of the four -page government document is to reduce the dependency on foreign powers.
This is also mentioned in Donald Trump’s America. The document stresses that Europe should be prepared for a “US withdrawal from European security”. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to act autonomously.
‘Immunity to foreign interventions’
Among other things, Germany and France revive the idea of creation ‘Sovereign’ Platforms Cloud – Large Data Centers where data from companies and individuals can be submitted safely. The aim is to make “immunity against foreign interventions” “as soon as possible”, as stated in the reset document.
Six years ago, former German Finance Minister Peter Altmeier and then French counterpart Bruno Lemmer proposed a European cloud to face the power of major American providers such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google: they called the Gaia-X project, but did not respond.
Following Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the ideas for enhancing Europe’s technological sovereignty are gaining new urgent importance: Confidence in American technology has been massively affected since Ukraine reported problems with US weapons systems after a dispute with Trump.
Consequently, France and Germany also want to close technological gaps in the defense sector: Both countries explicitly stress that “increasing Europe’s expenditure on defense and security” is to boost “European technological and industrial base”. A new French-German service is planned for pioneering innovations for military research-based on US Darpa.
The German -French agreements on China policy are equally explosive. The two countries not only want to continue their policy of rising risk, but they also want to “coordinate and expand” the European military presence in the Indo-Pacific. As soon as last fall, a German frigate crossed Taiwan’s strait, something China considers a challenge.
To improve competitiveness, Germany and France have pledged to complete the Capital Markets Union.
The document requests the Reduce capital requirements for banks – by reviewing the rules of “Basel 3” to ensure competitiveness against the US. “Basel 3” is a set of rules that impose stricter regulations on banks to make the banking system more stable and prevent financial crises. The document also requests “Careful relaxation of capital requirements” for insurance companies.
Great mergers aim to create “European champions” in areas such as mobile communications, aviation, artificial intelligence and defense. Economists warn that the weakening of competition law will lead to higher prices.
In the area of immigration, the document requests the “Full use of all EU levers” to persuade third countries to accept asylum seekers – including visas, trade and development aid. This marks a turning point: removal from a motivation policy and to greater pressure.
In the trade conflict with Donald Trump, Germany and France have committed a unity – an agreement with the US remains the declared target. For the first time, there is the possibility of using “monetary and fiscal means” against Trump.
The proposal is likely to cause turmoil in both Washington and EU partners. The EU is one of the largest world capital exporters and a significant part of European savings is flowing to the US market. The use of this for political purposes would be a significant escalation, Handelsblatt concludes.