France and Germany agree on Ukraine but not much else

Their leaders don’t seem to have dealt with EU’s industrial policies and China relations

- Jonathan Eyal

LONDON French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appear to have settled their differences over the freedoms Ukraine should enjoy in using Western-supplied weapons to defend the country from Russia's invasion.

From now on, the two leaders indicated, there should be fewer Western restrictions on the Ukrainian military striking targets deep inside Russia's territory.

"We must allow them (the Ukrainians) to neutralise the Russian military sites from which Ukraine is attacked," declared the French President during a press conference at the end of his state visit to Germany on May 28.

"Ukraine has every possibility to do this, under international law,"

Chancellor Scholz responded. "It must be said clearly that Ukraine was attacked and can defend herself." But beyond this agreement ove Ukraine, the leaders of the European Union's most powerful nations do not appear to have tackled their more fundamental differences over the continent's industrial policies and relations with China.

Both France and Germany have found it difficult to adjust to the realities of the Ukraine war.

President Macron attracted considerable criticism - and even public ridicule - for his attempts to forge a privileged relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin well after it became clear that Mr Putin was not interested in such proposals.

And the Germans spent decades arguing that their growing dependence on Russian oil and gas ensured that Russia would be a peaceful partner, only to be confronted by precisely the opposite outcome.

The leaders of the two nations have recalibrated their stances.

Chancellor Scholz surprised Europe with the efficiency of his country's move away from dependency on Russian energy supplies and the scale of Germany's military rearmament plans. France led European calls for greater security coordination.