GERMANY AS A

50 YEARS OF THE ÉLYSÉE TREATY
50 YEARS LATER
A MODEL
RELATIONSHIP?
General de Gaulle was right: the Élysée Treaty
was no fleeting blossom, but rather “a rose
garden, [which,] if tended well, can last
forever”. In its fifty years, it has made possible a
degree of cohesion which is unique in the world.
Its first success was highly intensive political coope-
ration. Systematic coordination has established
networks of contacts and formed habits of balancing
different approaches. It has done so at every level,
from heads of state to the lower levels of adminis-
tration. Today there is nothing more ordinary than
holding a Franco-German Council of Ministers, orga-
nizing a Franco-German staff exchange or presen-
ting a joint Franco-German position to the European
Council.
But the French and the Germans often take highly
divergent, or even diametrically opposed, approaches
to issues. Different attitudes are evident when it
comes to nuclear energy, the environment or the
euro. But this is precisely the key to their efficacy:
compelled to deepen their conversation and set
aside their own logic in order to understand the
other’s way of thinking, the French and the Germans
arrive at mutual compromises which then prove
persuasive to many other European partners as well.
The treaty’s major success, however, lies in the
friendship which has arisen between the people of the
two countries thanks to civil society actors and to
ongoing exchanges among young people, researchers,
artists, and the general public of both countries, not
to mention businesses. These ties of friendship
seem self-evident today, but they are the result of
great effort. Every generation must work to keep
nourishing and expanding them.