The official rationale may have been prudent monetary policy. But coming on the eve of the anniversary of the treaty that cemented postwar reconciliation between France and Germany, last week’s announcement of the Bundesbank’s repatriation of its gold from the Banque de France was a poignant symbol of the fraying of the relationship between the two powers at the heart of the EU.
From the eurozone crisis to intervention in Libya and Mali, and the failed merger of EADS and BAE Systems, the differences and tensions between Paris and Berlin are palpable. The fabled Franco-German motor appears no longer to be driving European integration.
It all seems a world away from 50 years ago this week, when Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer signed the Elysée treaty. This was no standard intergovernmental pact. They were creating the conditions for the exercise of joint leadership in shaping Europe’s “ever closer union”. They also hoped to lay the foundations of a common strategic – not merely economic – destiny. Even if the partnership has not sundered, those initial high spirits and lofty aspirations seem long gone.