A growing conflict between France and Germany, sparked by disagreements over nuclear power and internal combustion engines, threatens to affect the summit of European Union leaders this Thursday, France-Presse (AFP) reports March 23.
Conflict has flared between the EU’s two largest economies after Berlin upset some of its largest trade and economic partners, including France, by blocking a last-minute deal to ban new sales of fossil fuel vehicles from 2035.
The ban is key to Brussels’ ambitious plan to achieve a “climate neutral” economy with zero greenhouse gas emissions in the EU space by 2050. This month, Germany intervened in those plans after said car ban had already been approved through the EU legislative process. She demanded guarantees from Brussels that the new rules would allow the sale of cars with internal combustion engines running on synthetic fuel.
While the last-minute German lockdown upset the French, Paris in turn angered Berlin by insisting that nuclear power be given more prominence in EU proposals to produce more clean technology in Europe.
Paris and Berlin have traditionally worked together to advance the EU agenda. But a split hangs over the two-day summit opening today in Brussels, one of the main topics of which is the expansion of European support for Ukraine. Another key issue is increasing the economic competitiveness of the European bloc in the face of challenges in the form of US and Chinese subsidies.
According to an AFP source in the French government, Emmanuel Macron “focus on the role of nuclear energy in decarbonization” during the leaders’ meeting in Brussels.
Another senior EU diplomat was pessimistic about the outcome of the summit, given the current divisions between Berlin and Paris, as well as other European capitals.
“We do not expect an impressive breakthrough on any particular issue,” – said the interlocutor of the news agency.
An additional incentive for Macron to take a tough stance at the summit and not give up his position in a dispute with the German chancellor Olaf Scholz the internal political problems of the French leader are coming out against the backdrop of mass protests in his country because of the pension reform he initiated.
