France and Germany postpone joint summit until January

A joint meeting of the German and French cabinets will be postponed from next week until January, a German official said Wednesday, citing “logistical issues” as well as a lack of progress on key areas of cooperation.

POLITICO first reported on Tuesday that the high-level summit, which was supposed to bring together — for the first time in three years — the German and French governments in Fontainebleau, south of Paris, was at risk of being postponed due to disagreements over the content of a joint declaration, particularly on the topics of energy and defense.

Speaking to reporters in Berlin, a German official confirmed that a decision on the postponement had been taken: “The talks in the German-French Council of Ministers will be postponed until early or mid-January. We are in the process of finding a date,” the official said.

However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron might have a tête-à-tête in Paris next Wednesday, the German official added. Both leaders will also meet in Brussels this Thursday ahead of an EU leaders’ summit.

The postponement of next week’s meeting indicates significant strain in the Franco-German partnership, at a time when Berlin and Paris are already at loggerheads over issues such as how to combat the energy crisis and whether to build the Midcat pipeline project that would run from the Iberian Peninsula to northern Europe.

In a bid to play down the seriousness of these disputes, the German official argued that the delay had “mainly logistical difficulties” — a remark that appeared to refer to concerns voiced by some German ministers that the planned summit would have clashed with their autumn holiday plans.

The German official acknowledged, however, that differences over the content of the joint Franco-German declaration had also played a role in the decision to delay.

“In some dossiers we are not yet ready to be on the same line. Therefore, knowing that, we said that it would be better to do [the ministerial council] in January, when we are also present with all the important ministers,” the official said.