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The Treaty -- Foundation for a Special Relationship

Adenauer and DeGaulle embrace after signing the treaty in Paris.

The signing of the German-French Friendship Treaty at the Elysée Palace in Paris in 1963 laid the foundation stone for particularly close and trusting cooperation within the European Union. No other treaty has had such a direct and lasting effect on the co-existence of two nations, and ever since, there has been a special relationship between Germany and France.

After many decades of strained relations based on conflict, Germany and France began to come closer together in the 1950s. German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman and his adviser Jean Monnet played a major role in the active European integration projects in the post war years. And after an exchange of visits between Adenauer and French President Charles de Gaulle, relations advanced and eventually led to the signing of the treaty in which both governments pledge to consult each other on all relevant questions of foreign policy, security, youth and culture.

Cooperation is not limited to diverse political contacts between heads of state and government, ministers, members of parliament and ministry officials, but extends far into the area of economics and civil society. Germany and France are each other's most important trading partners and labor markets outside their own borders. The communities have the closest links through youth exchange programs and town partnerships, German-French societies, encounters in the worlds of profession, leisure and academia, and not least through countless personal friendships, relationships and marriages.

The Elysée Palace

Political Relations
Economic Relations
Cultural Relations
The Future of Special Relations

Political relations
It is due to the efforts of France and Germany, "Partners in Leadership", that the establishment of the European Council, the setting up of the European Monetary System, the Maastricht Treaty, the Amsterdam Treaty and the introduction of the Euro came about. On the Franco-German agenda have been European Union enlargement, European security issues and transatlantic relations. Since the post-war period, and since the Elysée Treaty was signed in 1963, the Franco-German Friendship has been and continues to be the driving force in Europe.

As the 40th anniversary of the Friendship Treaty approaches, both nations are more determined than ever to continue moving European integration forward. The European Union's enlargement to the east is continuing steadily, making the harmonious cooperation between the two countries more important than ever.

Co-operation between the governments is extraordinarily close and greatly institutionalized due to the Elysée Treaty and its amendment of 1988. To name just a few examples:
• half-yearly government consultations (summits), which, since 1999, have focused on current topics of society in both countries and therefore go beyond simple co-operation between governments,
• the German-French Security and Defense Council,
• the Councils for Economic, Financial and Environmental Affairs and
• the coordinators for German-French co-operation, which devote most of their attention today to the field of civil society

In addition, since the beginning of 2001, heads of state and government and the foreign ministers of both countries have been holding informal meetings every 6-8 weeks for open and intense discussion on current topics of European and international interest (Blaesheim talks).

Both countries have played a pioneering role in defense policy by founding the Eurocorps and both are actively participating in the creation of a European Security and Defense Policy. And Germany and France are each other's most important partners in international co-operation on armaments.

Economic relations
Germany and France are by far each other's most important trading partners. In 2001, Germany exported 11% of its exports to France, while France sold 14% of its total exports in Germany. The strong trading relationship has led to significant direct investments in both countries. At the end of 2000, the volume of German direct investments in France was EUR 23 billion, and France had invested EUR 29 billion in Germany. In the years following German reunification, France was the leading country of origin for foreign investments in former East Germany. Together, the two national economies account for more than 50% of the Euro-Zone's economic output.

Cultural Relations
Since the 1950s and, in particular, since the signing of the Elysée Treaty, probably the densest network of social relations possible between two countries has arisen between Germany and France. Of central importance to these relations are: the youth exchange program (200,000 participants annually and 6 million participants since 1963), the town and regional partnerships (2,000 in total) and the school partnerships (around 5,000).

The post of Coordinator of Franco-German Cooperation was created in the foreign ministries of both countries to work towards strengthening the relations between the two countries' societies. In Germany, the Coordinator of Franco-German Cooperation is Professor Rudolf von Thadden.

The Elysée Treaty places special emphasis on cooperation in culture and education, and numerous projects focus on general school education, vocational training and higher education. These projects are initiated and managed by various German-French expert committees and the German-French Secretariat for Exchanges in Vocational Training in Saarbrücken. They aim to strengthen the "European abilities" of young people in both countries and offer the younger generation greater mobility to cross borders in professional life. The German-French University was founded in Saarbrücken in 1999 and offers a dual degree recognized in both countries.

The decline in German language learning in France and the growing tendency in Germany for students to drop French language studies before A-level (Abitur) threaten to undermine an important foundation of the two countries' common cultural understanding. Both sides are making efforts to counter this development. In 2000, the then French Education Minister introduced foreign language teaching to primary schools and made learning another foreign language mandatory from 6th grade onwards in order to open up new opportunities for the German language. Other targeted advertising measures were initiated through the establishment of a bilingual internet portal (www.fplusd.de / www.fplusd.fr), which went online in July 2002, and the work of the “Deutschmobile” and “Francemobile”, which have been touring both countries since 2001 and 2002 respectively. Their teachers serve to advertise learning of the partner language among schools and educational institutions. Some schools visited by the "Deutschmobile" have reported considerable increases in numbers enrolling for the subject German. These efforts are continuing and are one of the key initiatives to be celebrated at the 40th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty.

The future of special relations between Germany and France
German-French co-operation remains of particular significance today, as the European Union's enlargement to the east is moving into its concrete phase. Understanding for common positions on reforming EU institutions and agreement on controversial questions of the future of common agricultural policy smooth the way towards a "Europe of 25". Germany and France will continue to function as a driving force and innovator within Europe, whether by working out common areas of intensive co-operation and proposing these to their European partners, or by continuing to work productively with contrasting positions and find feasible compromises.