The Franco-German Tandem Face to Face with the Coronacrisis

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic, which caused the most acute global economic and social crisis after the Second World War, forced the governments of the EU member states to seek answers at the national and then at the regional level The key role in this transition is played by the two leading powers that were at the origins of the process of European integration - France and Germany The success in overcoming the consequences of the coronacrisis in the European Union decisively depends on their cooperation The authors explore the reasons for France and Germany to put forward a joint initiative on May 18, 2020, its content and priorities They emphasize that the scale of the proposals prepared by the tandem has imposed on it additional responsibility for the fate of the European integration and increased other EU partners' expectations of the results of the two leaders' cooperation The article is the fourth article written by the authors over the past year and a half on the problems of Franco-German interaction for the journal Contemporary The three previous articles are devoted to the 2019 Aachen treaty, a dialogue on the future of Europe between E Macron and A Kramp-Karrenbauer and the Franco-German tandem in the context of the European elections