Merz, Macron present united front in Berlin

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hosted French President Emmanuel Macron in Berlin on Wednesday. It was Macron's first visit to the country since the German elections earlier this year, with both sides pledging to increase cross-border cooperation "at all levels".

The meeting of the leaders of the two dominant economies of the European Union took place against a backdrop of the clock ticking down to the United States imposing 30 percent tariffs on EU goods from Aug 1, with Merz hinting there may be some development on this issue imminently.

"We will discuss some very current issues together, including the current trade policy, about which we are hearing in these minutes that there could possibly be decisions," he said.

Macron emphasized that any European response would be a coordinated one, for the greatest good of the whole 27-member bloc. "Today, we are responding to the tariff offensive that has been launched with a determination that we share: to provide stability and have the lowest possible tariffs," he added.

The same day, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that progress was being made at the top-level negotiations, and that threatened retaliatory duties the EU was preparing to impose on US imports may not be needed.

"Talks are going better than they had been," he told Bloomberg. "I think that we are making good progress with the EU."

The first institution that laid the foundations for what has grown into the modern EU was an economic partnership created after World War II specifically to prevent neighboring France and Germany from ever going to war again, and Merz summoned up this spirit in his welcome for Macron.

'Close friendship'

"We stand on the foundation of a close Franco-German friendship that has developed over decades, and we both feel a great obligation to continue working on this in the coming years," he said.

Bilateral "convergence… whether it concerns defense, security, the energy transition, or artificial intelligence and quantum technology, is absolutely key to gaining efficiency, critical mass and cooperation", added Macron.

However, there are some significant differences of opinion on other major policy matters, including energy and defense.

The next-generation fighter jet project known as the Future Combat Air System, which is being built in conjunction with Spain, has a deadline of the end of this year for its next stage of development, and significant players in France have expressed concern over how this is progressing.

Merz said he and Macron would talk "about common foreign and security policy, and we will talk about the joint projects that we both discussed some time ago, and on which we are working intensively".