En this end of 2022, many attacks are directed against our German friends who are being blamed pell-mell: for not doing enough for Ukraine; to play personally on the budgetary plan to stem the effects of the energy crisis; to think above all of its exports, having scheduled a visit by Chancellor Scholz to his Chinese counterpart; to rebuild a German defense with American equipment, under an American umbrella.
We would like, especially in France, a more united Germany, which knows how to open the check book, which acts for the construction of European sovereignty, which strives to defend European interests, which no longer engages in all-out trade cornerstone of his power.
Indeed, Europe’s level of dependence would no longer be acceptable in the face of the risks posed by powers such as China and Russia. Buying Russian gas or trading with China would have become totally inappropriate in the climate of geopolitical tensions that are shaking our planet.
A Europe that does not exist
What we need is no longer a Germany open to the world but rather a Germany concerned with building European sovereignty in all areas (military, commercial, diplomatic), the only way to defend European interests. Except that this Europe does not exist in the treaties, from that of Rome to that of Lisbon via Maastricht.
In its preamble, the 1957 Treaty of Rome stated that “desiring to contribute, through a common commercial policy, to the progressive abolition of restrictions on international trade”, with the desired purpose of “contribute to the development of international trade and the reduction of barriers to trade, by concluding agreements aimed, on the basis of reciprocity and mutual benefit, at the reduction of customs duties…”.
The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 advocated “an open market economy where competition is free”. The Europe we have built from the outset is a Europe open to the world, which campaigns for free and undistorted competition, for the social market economy; a Europe that joins the World Trade Organization and continues to enact new free trade agreements with the rest of the world.
A big misunderstanding
Within the framework thus forged, Germany has effectively behaved like the good pupil of the European Union: open to the European internal market, open to the world, open to trade with the United States and China which are now its main customers and suppliers. It also responds positively to all the standards set by Europe: contained budget deficit, open public tenders, public debt in accordance with the stability pact, free and undistorted competition, social market economy.
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