On Tuesday, 22 January 2019, the 56th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty, the President of the French Republic and the German Federal Chancellor signed a new treaty on Franco-German cooperation and integration in Aachen.
The Treaty of Aachen entered into force on Wednesday, 22 January 2020, (…)
The Treaty on Franco-German Friendship (known as the Élysée Treaty), signed on 22 January 1963 by German Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and France’s President de Gaulle, is the foundation of the relationship forged between France and Germany. It established vast systematic consultations through regular meetings at all levels, which have formed a Franco-German “reflex” in the two countries.
Following on from this first foundational treaty, on 22 January 2019, President Macron and Federal Chancellor Merkel signed the Treaty on Franco-German Cooperation and Integration, or “Treaty of Aachen”. This Treaty aims to strengthen ties between France and Germany in a European framework and enable them to tackle contemporary issues. It came with a list of key projects, which were added to on 31 May 2021. The Treaty of Aachen created the Franco-German Cross-border Cooperation Committee and the Franco-German Joint Citizens’ Fund, for example.
The Franco-German Council of Ministers (CMFA/DFMR), which was set up in 2003, meets annually, alternately in France and Germany. In 2024, the CMFA/DFMR took place in Germany on 28 May, at the end of the state visit by President Macron from 26 to 28 May. This State visit, the first since that of President Jacques Chirac in 2000, was even more symbolic as it took place during the 75th anniversary celebrations of the German Basic Law (or Constitution).
Furthermore, on 9 and 10 October 2023, the first Franco-German cabinet retreat took place in Hamburg. This new format, which was inspired by the German Government’s end-of-summer retreat, provides an informal framework for French and German Ministers to discuss a number of topics and build friendly ties with their counterparts.
Lastly, Franco-German parliamentary cooperation was strengthened with the establishment of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly, made up of 50 French and 50 German representatives, in March 2019. It aims to create better cooperation between the French National Assembly and the German Bundestag. Its board is chaired by Brigitte Klinkert (Renaissance political party) on the French side, and Nils Schmidt (SPD political party) on the German side.
In 2023, Germany was by far France’s leading trading partner. Germany’s share in France’s total trade in goods amounted to 13.1%. Franco-German trade did however decline slightly in 2023 (down 1.7%), but this decline was less than the overall decline in French trade in 2023 (down 3.3%). Germany continues to be both France’s leading customer and supplier, representing 13.7% of French exports. In particular, Germany is the leading partner in many French industries (transport, machinery, chemicals, cosmetics, and metallurgy, among others).
France, since 2017, has been the fourth-largest economic partner of Germany, after China, the United States and the Netherlands. Franco-German trade accounted for 6.4% of total German trade in 2023. France is Germany’s sixth-largest supplier (5.1% of German imports in 2023) and its second-largest customer (7.5% of German exports in 2023).
The Franco-German relationship has recently been marked by significant investments. These include the purchase of Bombardier Transport, finalized in 2021, and the acquisition of the corresponding German sites, by Alstom, as well as the inauguration in 2023 by the Franco-German group ACC of a “gigafactory” in the Pas-de-Calais department, to produce liquid lithium-ion batteries.
The French and German economies are extremely intertwined and complementary. According to the GTAI, the German economic promotion agency, some 5,700 French subsidiaries set up in Germany in 2021. France is one of the five foreign investors that has created the most jobs (more than 400,000) in Germany alongside Switzerland, the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
According to Business France, in 2022 France was home to 3,000 businesses controlled by German investors, employing some 325,000 people. The French and German economies have also been marked by intense cross-investment, with France being the sixth-largest investor in Germany at the end of 2022 with more than €63.5 billion in stock, while Germany is the third-largest investor in France with stock of €100.8 billion.
Under the Élysée Treaty, Germany designates a plenipotentiary for Franco-German cultural and educational relations. This post is held on a rotating basis by the leader of a Land designated by the Federal Chancellor for four years, upon a proposal from the Conference of German Minister-Presidents. This position has been held by the Minister-President of the Sarre, Ms Anke Rehlinger, since 1 January 2023.
Our particularly intense cultural and scientific cooperation draws on a strong network of institutions, including:
The French cultural, educational, scientific and technical cooperation network in Germany is diverse:
This cooperation took shape, in the framework of the Treaty of Aachen, in the creation of four Franco-German cultural institutes (in Rio de Janeiro, Palermo, Erbil and Bishkek) and the co-location of five French and German institutes (Cordoba, Atlanta, Glasgow, Minsk and Ramallah).
Various cross-border cooperation forums exist between France and Germany, in particular the Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CCT) and the Upper Rhine institutions (the Upper Rhine Conference and the Upper Rhine Intergovernmental Commission), with the last two also including Switzerland.
The creation of the CCT on 22 January 2020, under the Treaty of Aachen, has strengthened cross-border cooperation. The Committee has a joint secretariat in Kehl (Baden-Württemberg, Germany), which addresses cross-border irritants. For example, it issues recommendations to the Franco-German Council of Ministers on various subjects, including support for cross-border education, issues related to French and German environmental car stickers, tax issues for cross-border workers, development and improvement of cross-border rail connections and a cross-border impact assessment of new French and German laws, among other things.
The CCT brings together all stakeholders concerned by cross-border affairs: the national governments, through ambassadors for border issues, ministries and the Prefecture of the Grand-Est region, national parliaments, the Länder (Sarre, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg), regional authorities (French Grand-Est region, the European Community of Alsace, the département of Moselle and the Eurometropole of Strasbourg) as well as the five eurodistricts.
The CCT meets in principle twice a year, with at least one of those meetings being held under the presidency of the ministers responsible for European affairs. The first meeting of the CCT for 2024 took place on 16 April in Strasbourg, under the presidency of Florian Hassler, State Secretary of Baden-Württemberg and Josiane Chevalier, Prefect of the Grand-Est region.
Updated: 22 October 2024
