Europe’s gaseous political alliances

“SCHMIDT AND Giscard supported each other on every point which came up during this European Council,” scribbled Roy Jenkins in his diary in 1977. The former British home secretary had just become president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive. He was struck by the extent to which West Germany (led by by Helmut Schmidt) and France (led by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing) looked out for each other. Back in those days Europe’s two central powers sorted out their differences in private, and then used their combined weight to set the agenda for the entire club.

Today things work differently. On many policy subjects, France and Germany are now openly divided. The former wants to cut short the endless Brexit negotiations; the latter is willing to prolong them. France backs the European Intervention Initiative, a European military force willing to act even when some EU states disagree; Germany is keener on Permanent Structured Co-operation, a broader but less dynamic forum for EU security co-ordination. France wants to integrate the euro zone further, to prepare it for the next crisis; Germany frets about moral hazard.