French, German leaders to meet in Paris amid diverging views

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris on Wednesday, amid divergences between the two neighbors and key European Union allies over EU strategy, defense and economic policies.

Macron and Scholz will have a working lunch at the Elysee presidential palace, during which they will discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Initially, a French-German joint Cabinet meeting was scheduled for the day, but it was postponed until January. The governments in Paris and Berlin both said they still have work to do to reach consensus on some bilateral issues.

French-German divergences are not unusual. The countries, home to the eurozone’s biggest economies, are used to having different stances on defense, energy and other topics.

“My wish has always been to preserve European unity and also the friendship and the alliance between France and Germany,” Macron said last week in Brussels before an EU meeting. “I think it’s not good for Germany nor for Europe that it isolates itself,” he added.

Asked Friday about the apparent tensions, Scholz said that cooperation with France is “very intensive” and stressed that he holds frequent meetings with Macron.

“There are questions on which we have common points of view and drive things forward,” he said. “You can see, for example, that it is Germany and France who repeatedly look at how we can achieve progress to support Ukraine.”

“There are also questions that we are discussing, that in some cases have been under debate for years and need to be pushed forward,” Scholz said.

French-German government meetings are usually held at least once a year to coordinate policies. The last one was held in May 2021 via videoconference due to the...