Some people may have wondered, as the new German-French agreement was signed on Tuesday in Aachen: Is it smaller? The agreement is a response to populism and nationalism, said the German Chancellor and the French President spoke pathetically of a “protective shield for our people against the new storms of the world”. You will not do the good projects, the document is certainly wrong, if it is determined that they will not be nearly enough to address the many major problems of our time – be it the disintegration of the Western camp, the growing aggressiveness of Russia, or the upheavals in the world economy, to name just a few topics. Germany and France are the two Central powers, whose forces are hardly sufficient to arrange the own continent, not to mention the world stage.

This is not to say that the Treaty would be superfluous. On The Contrary. The EU is experiencing the most difficult Phase since its creation, it is helpful if the two most important member States reaffirm their commitment to cooperation: The impact of the Brexits will occupy Europe for a long time and hinder (the UK, of course, at the most). There is a new cleavage between the West and the East in the EU, which is expanding gradually to a philosophical schism. Italy will be as a Partner for joint projects for the foreseeable future. To come into a situation like this even results in Brussels, Berlin and Paris together. A fact often overlooked in the heated debate about the Integration. The alone, of which now so many dreams, usually blockages only, not to the solution of problems (see the fruit-free migration debate).

shows, However, the Aachen-based contract, where the German-French friendship ends. The deep into the Basic realm remains disagreement in questions of defence and armaments, which was überkleistert in the agreement only with difficulty, one of the major obstacles to a common Foreign and security policy. Here, above all, the German policy has not recognized the signs of the time still.