Scholz and Macron, keen to improve ties, seek the next Airbus

France and Germany held a two-day cabinet retreat this week looking for ways to revitalise Europe’s economic potential, but despite the apparent show of unity, they remained preoccupied with atmospheric problems and policy divisions.

Ministers from the two biggest EU countries come together twice a year for a joint cabinet meeting. This time around, the assembly took for the first the form of a full two-day retreat in Hamburg on 9-10 October.

While it was overshadowed by intense diplomacy regarding Hamas’ attack on Israel, the primary topics were Franco-German concerns over Europe’s declining global competitiveness against the backdrop of rising energy prices and a major industrial transformation.

“The red thread really was our will to build a stronger Europe through Franco-German convergence (…) in terms of economics and European progress through good investments that retain our competitiveness,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Tuesday.

Not surprisingly, a visit to an Airbus factory in Hamburg was a major agenda item on Monday, which both leaders singled out as a model Franco-German project.

Airbus, a multinational aerospace company, was founded in the 1970s with support from both governments in an attempt to create a European competitor to dominant American aeroplane manufacturers.

More than five decades later, the corporation has established itself as the world leader in plane manufacturing ahead of Boeing.

Past glory and dreams of the future

There was a hint of nostalgia as Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday the cabinet discussions about today’s economic situation in Europe had “always kept Airbus in their sight”.

The prospects for a successor project to Airbus are bleak, as meetings between the two governments still focus on ironing out atmospheric tensions and disagreements on policy two years into Olaf Scholz’s first term.

The Hamburg retreat was primarily intended to “strengthen the relationship” rather than “constantly draft statements and papers”, a German government spokesperson said last Friday, pointing to a planned boat tour on the Elbe scheduled for sundown, which Macron and Scholz would use for bilateral talks.

The two leaders already tried in June to improve their strained personal relation, often described as “lacking chemistry”, in the form of an unprecedented meeting at Scholz’s private residence in Potsdam, near Berlin.

Increasingly, the relatively new market for Artificial Intelligence is becoming a focal point for the two governments’s efforts to reclaim Europe’s economic and technological edge in competition with America’s tech giants.

AI was a central part of discussions at the Hamburg retreat and had also been intended to play a role in Macron’s cancelled official visit in July.

After the retreat, the French president spoke openly about “advancing joint Franco-German and European projects to create computing power, reduce dependence on chips, and share data”, alongside regulation that would provide a hotbed for new AI models.

The pain of the present

Yet, France and Germany remain bogged down in prickly infighting on technical topics that affect their capacity to stage a steady recovery following the economic shocks of COVID-19 and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Most prominently, the two are fighting over the status of nuclear energy in a planned reform of the European energy market, which is supposed to find common mechanisms to shield companies and private consumers from price shocks.

Here at least, the “spirit of Hamburg” as Macron dubbed it seems to have yielded some results.

“We found that we want to work together here in the coming weeks with our teams to reach a necessary agreement by the end of the month,” the French president announced.

Moreover, the two governments have been working on a joint push to reduce the regulatory burden coming from Brussels. The move has been teased by German officials for a while. But a first joint declaration, which has been pending until now, is supposed to be published later in the day.

Macron and Scholz also jointly condemned the Hamas attack on Israel, assuring the country of its support.

There had previously been confusion over a European Commission announcement that the EU would suspend aid to Palestine and place its continuation under review, with some governments and the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell objecting with reference to humanitarian aid for the civil society.

Both Scholz and Macron clarified that they would not back a stop of EU support for Palestinian citizens, but that a review was necessary to avoid money going to Hamas, designated as a terrorist organisation by both the EU and the United States.

“It’s necessary to ensure that [none of our support] benefits terrorist structures and that we will review this in the face of such events is [normal],” Scholz said.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]