By Michelle Rose and Sarah Marsh
PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Germany on Sunday for a three-day state visit followed by bilateral ministerial meetings as the European Union's two biggest powers seek to project unity ahead of EU parliamentary elections next month.
Macron's visit to the capital Berlin, as well as Dresden in the east and Münster in the west, will be the first official visit to Germany by a French president in 24 years.
The visit will be seen as a check on the health of the German-French relationship, which drives EU policymaking, at a time when Europe faces major challenges, from the war in Ukraine to the possibility of Donald Trump becoming U.S. President in November.
Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have very different leadership styles and have been at open odds on issues ranging from defense to nuclear energy since Scholz took power in late 2021. But they have recently reached compromises on a range of fronts, from fiscal reform to changes to electricity market subsidies, and the EU has appeared more united in agreements.
“There are tensions in relations between Germany and France, but also because they are dealing with some difficult issues,” said Jan Wernert of the Jacques Delors Institute in Berlin, adding that the two countries also agreed on the need to expand the EU eastwards.
Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, said the visit was “an attempt at the highest level of politics to show that relations are going well,” but added that “there remain fundamental differences on key issues looming for the EU.”
One key gap concerns European defense, especially if Trump wins the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election. Defense experts see him as a much less predictable and more reliable ally for Europe than his Democratic rival, President Joe Biden.
The former Republican president said earlier this year that if NATO allies slowed down in their contributions to the defense alliance, he would not only not protect them from a future Russian attack, but would encourage Russia to “do whatever it wants.”
Nuclear-armed France is seeking greater European independence in defense matters and has resented Germany's decision to buy mostly U.S.-made equipment under the air defense umbrella of the European Skyshield initiative.
Germany argues there is no credible alternative to the U.S. military umbrella and that Europe has no time to wait for its own defense industries to prepare for threats such as Russian hostility.
Glamour and business
Accompanied by his wife Brigitte, Macron's visit on Sunday will begin with a meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin before walking around the city's landmark Brandenburg Gate with Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner.
On Monday he will travel to Dresden to speak in front of the Frauenkirche church, which was destroyed by the Western Allies during World War II, before traveling to Münster on Tuesday.
But perhaps the most important part of the visit will be a ministerial meeting on Tuesday in Meseberg, outside Berlin, where the two governments will get serious about finding common ground on two major issues where they have struggled to agree on: defence and competitiveness.
The two countries will also try to find common ground on the EU's agenda for the next five years, given that far-right forces are expected to make gains in parliamentary elections from June 6-9, making EU decision-making more difficult.
Rahman said the EU would have a clear opportunity to push ahead with a more ambitious plan between parliamentary elections and the installation of new leadership, as well as next summer's German elections – something that would be particularly important if Trump were to win the election, he said.
