France, Germany Seek New Treaty Ahead Of Brexit

Local Editor

France and Germany will sign a new friendship treaty on Tuesday, seeking to boost an alliance at the heart of the European Union as Britain bows out and with nationalism rising around the continent.

Relatively, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will sign the deal, which pledges deeper economic and military ties as well as commitment to the EU, in the German city of Aachen.

Accordingly, the French presidency announced it was an "important moment" for showing the relationship was "a bedrock which can relaunch itself ... in the service of reinforcing the European project".

"We're seeing an existential crisis in terms of European integration, with Brexit and the expected strengthening of nationalists at the next European elections," said Claire Demesmay, a political scientist at German research institute DGAP.

"In this context, confirming this belief in Franco-German cooperation has symbolic value," she told German public radio.

In further details, Merkel and Macron will sign the deal on the anniversary of a similar Franco-German cooperation treaty in 1963 by France's Charles de Gaulle and the German chancellor of the time, Konrad Adenauer.

The new treaty aims to start the relationship known as the "Franco-German motor", traditionally seen as the key alliance in Europe between two economic and political heavyweights.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team