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France and Germany will set up a joint security council as part of Europe’s increased focus on its own defence, President Emmanuel Macron said as he hosted Friedrich Merz on the new chancellor’s first state visit abroad.
Meeting at the Élysée Palace on Wednesday, the two leaders vowed to reinforce co-operation in the face of increased threats from Russia and an unpredictable US administration under President Donald Trump. Merz, who took office on Tuesday, has made a point of heading to Paris first to revive co-operation between the EU’s largest countries.
“Beyond tanks, combat aircraft and long-range missiles, we will establish a Franco-German defence and security council that will meet regularly to provide operational solutions to our common strategic challenges,” Macron said, singling out “the systematic threat Russia poses to our European system”. He also cited sovereignty and competitiveness as areas of focus between the two nations.
Merz hailed the “profound attachment” between France and Germany and said that his visit was an “expression of the personal ties that Emmanuel Macron and I have been able to forge over the past few years”.
The French president had already met Merz several times in recent months to discuss urgent issues including Trump’s tariff war and his efforts to settle the fate of Ukraine with Russia.
Merz called for all European member states “to increase their defence spending to fill gaps in military capability and to continue to fully support Ukraine”.
The chancellor, who previously warned Europe it could no longer count on the US to defend it, said the war in Ukraine “will not end without further political and military engagement from the United States of America. The Europeans cannot replace it”.
The two leaders also said any discussions of broadening France’s nuclear umbrella to other European countries would only aim to complement the existing Nato framework of security guarantees from the US.
“We consider that we, Europeans, must organise ourselves better, but that this is not about questioning of historical alliances,” Macron said.
Officials in Paris hope that Merz’s arrival as chancellor will inject new energy into EU projects, including defence initiatives, and boosting the Eurozone’s competitiveness. The two leaders’ personal styles as well as political views are more closely aligned than they were with former chancellor Olaf Scholz, with whom relations were “not fluid”, one French official said.
“This is a good opportunity both for France and Germany and for Europe more broadly to get more momentum behind key priorities,” said Benjamin Haddad, France’s Europe minister. “The new [German] government has strong ambitions for Europe to be more independent on defence and security, and we also have shared goals on competitiveness and immigration. Macron and Merz both want to go very quickly.”
Merz’s allies share the view Scholz did not invest enough time and effort in Paris and beyond in Europe.
“This was not just about France,” said David McAllister, a senior CDU MEP. Scholz, a Social Democrat, got along well with political allies including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, but failed to establish close relationships with his conservative Polish and Italian counterparts Donald Tusk and Giorgia Meloni, he remarked. Merz was set to travel to meet Tusk later on Wednesday, followed by a visit to Brussels on Friday.
“Macron makes big speeches, because he has a vision for Europe’s future. Olaf Scholz had neither. No big speeches, no ambitious vision — not even a convincing idea how the future of European integration might look,” McAllister said. “For a successful Europe, we need French enthusiasm and committed German pragmatism.”
Difficult topics that had strained the Franco-German relationship in recent years include trade — Germany supports the Mercosur treaty with Latin America, while France has opposed it — and energy, where they have clashed over whether French nuclear energy should be considered low-carbon under EU green regulations.
“This won’t all get sorted out during one visit, but the positive thing with Merz is that the habit of turning to Franco-German co-operation is back,” said a French official. “The aim is to hammer out agreements where we can and where we cannot, then we at least contain our differences so the Franco-German partnership can still function.”