French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed their willingness to work together in Paris on Sunday to „refound” Europe, including the response the EU must give to Washington’s massive plan to subsidize American industry, but without overcoming all the differences, especially those on European defense, AFP reports, Agerpres reads.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the post-war reconciliation treaty between France and Germany and while Europe knows war again with the Russian aggression in Ukraine, the two leaders made repeated references to „friendship” and ” the Franco-German „fraternity”, which have been key elements of the „European construction” for decades.

In speeches held at the Sorbonne University before the Franco-German council of ministers, the two leaders evoked the role of „pioneers of the refounding of Europe” played by France and Germany „as the locomotive of a united Europe”.

At the end of the council, they participated in a press conference, where they tried to insist on the points of convergence between Paris and Berlin, announcing for example progress in the discussions on hydrogen energy infrastructures through the extension to Germany of the Franco-Portuguese pipeline Spanish HEMed.

Maron and Scholz defined a „common line” in favor of an „ambitious and rapid” European response to American subsidies for the energy transition, without specifying how this effort, which should prevent the deindustrialization of the European Union, will be financed, faced with the increase in energy prices as a result of the European Green Pact and the sanctions applied to Russia that require finding alternative sources of energy, which are, however, more expensive.

Agerpres