German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called for a renewed partnership with France to help Europe confront its “enormous” security and economic challenges.
At a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Wednesday, Merz outlined a joint vision for deeper European integration, calling for a “new push for Europe” grounded in closer Franco-German cooperation.
“We will only be able to meet these challenges if France and Germany stand even more closely together than in the past,” Merz said. “That is why Emmanuel Macron and I have agreed on a new Franco-German push for Europe.”
Among the initiatives discussed was the strengthening of the Franco-German Defence and Security Council, Merz said.
“We want to better coordinate our support for Ukraine within this framework, align our national defence planning and procurement projects even more closely, and also find new answers to strategic questions of security and defence policy,” Merz added.
The meeting comes at a time of mounting concern across Europe about the reliability of US security guarantees amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Macron said the two countries would fast-track new defence capabilities.
The visit to Paris follows a rocky start to Merz’s chancellorship after he needed an unprecedented two rounds of voting in the Bundestag to be elected Chancellor, suggesting underlying divisions within the new governing coalition between his centre-right CDU/CSU alliance and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).
But in a potential shift towards a more unified German foreign policy, Merz now presides over a government in which both the chancellery and foreign ministry are held by the same party for the first time in years.
He has also pledged to establish a national security council within the chancellery, aimed at improving coordination across foreign, development, and defence policy.
Later on Wednesday, Merz is due to travel to Poland. Speaking to German state broadcaster ZDF, Merz added that he intended to work with Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to shape a tougher EU-wide migration framework.