Franco-German Axis as Ｍotor of European Integration: The Case of Euro Policy

• Main Authors: Chin-Yu Chuang, 莊覲瑜
• Other Authors: 張福昌
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/bd594m

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 歐洲研究所碩士班 === 107 === In today''s Europe, France and Germany are perceived as key actors that exercise an essential influence on shaping European policies. Plus, the special relationship between the two states has served as the anchor of European integration since its starting point. Since the reconciliation after WWII, the Franco-German bilateralism has evolved into an intimate partnership in the framework of the Élysée Treaty signed in 1963. The institutional architecture between France and Germany was then to be enforced that enabled such ancient antagonists to mediate their conflicts and act in tandem on European issues. Thus, the so-called ‘Franco-German Axis’ is understood as an intense Franco-German cooperation in view of European leadership in the sense of promoting integration, managing crises, and shaping subgroups of member states. However, considering the growing power asymmetry brought by the return of German hegemony coupled with relative French economic and political weakness, the Franco-German Axis is perceived to have stalled and questioned to have lost its raison d’ être in recent years. Therefor, the aimes of this thesis were to figure out whether the Franco-German Axis has already become an obsolete notion that no longer makes sense. In the case of the European sovereign debt crisis, an intense Franco-German cooperation is still observable in identifying solutions to common challenges and breaking deadlocks in negotiations at the EU level under three types of leadership: Agenda-setting, consensus building, coalition building. Besides, comparing to the costly and time-consuming bargaining procedure on the EU level, the intensif and highly institutionalized communications on the Franco-German bilateral level plus their issue specific leadership resources on EMU matters somehow remain themselves at the core of the EU. In this context, we can say that a Franco-German partnership still remains a critical and symbolic factor necessary for reaching agreements leading to more institutional changes in the EU.