Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz lead the EU’s two biggest economies, sharing a 280-mile border. But when it comes to protecting Europe from global threats, these neighbors may as well be on different planets, POLITICO writes.
At an event in Berlin this week, the French president warned that the EU “could die” and that if it continues with a “classical” free-trade agenda, it will be “out of the market” in two or three years. He made the case that Europe should embrace a more protectionist agenda if it wants to survive.
Scholz meanwhile argued that a push to protect European industries from unfair trade practices “must not lead to us harming ourselves.”
After spending years fighting on whether to include nuclear power in one list of EU green investments, Paris and Berlin kept battling over the issue on almost every Brussels text that followed.
France wants to recognize nuclear as a strategic technology and ease state aid rules for the sector. But a top German official last week warned that EU resources should not be spent on nuclear power.
It’s also getting harder for both Berlin and Paris to make concessions that will upset voters at home, even if their countries benefit from a compromise.
