（来源：China Daily 2022-12-27）

Strains likely to ease at delayed meeting shadowed by Ukraine crisis, experts say

Despite recent tensions over issues such as energy and defense, France and Germany still have many common interests and are expected to manage differences rationally when they hold a delayed cabinet meeting next month, experts say.

The French and German governments have rescheduled the joint cabinet meeting in Paris on Jan 22, the French presidency said last week. The meeting was to have taken place in October but was canceled because of differences between the EU's biggest partners on energy and defense.

France 's President Emmanuel Macron invited Germany 's Chancellor Olaf Scholz for lunch shortly after the cabinet meeting was canceled in an effort to smooth over tensions. However, a planned joint news conference after the meeting was canceled and the two countries did not issue any kind of joint statement.

Zhao Junjie, a research fellow with the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the conflict between France and Germany has surfaced more and more clearly this year.

Compared with Germany's previous government, its current three-party coalition, especially the Greens, has been affected more by the United States, thus the government has divided views over issues such as economics and diplomacy, and has even shown biases over certain countries, Zhao said.

The spillover effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict have made the tensions between France and Germany more obvious, he said.

Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on Feb 24, EU countries have followed the US in imposing sanctions on Russia , resulting in a surge in energy prices and living costs for European countries.

Germany , which relied on Russia for more than half its gas needs, has been affected more severely than some other European countries by energy shortages and rising prices. In September Scholz announced an energy fund of 200 billion euros ($210 billion) in subsidies for people and businesses affected by high energy prices without first consulting EU allies, irking some.

'Subsidy race'

EU members have said this measure will create unfair competition among businesses in the EU and could trigger a "subsidy race "among countries, fueling European inflation, Zhao said. Macron has even warned that Germany 's subsidy plans could threaten the EU's single market, and he has called on Berlin not to undermine European unity in its energy policy. France and Germany are also at odds over whether to cap gas prices.

Moreover, since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out there has been a growing rift between France and Germany in the defense sector. For instance, Germany said it would buy 35 US-made F-35 fighter jets, which could upset France , which was seeking a joint project to build a European combat aircraft, Zhao said.

Zhao Yongsheng, director of the French Economic Studies Center at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said France regards itself as a strategist, and how the EU should develop, such as pushing forward EU integration, has been proposed by France , which has long played a leading role in terms of politics and diplomacy.

Germany has long acted more like an economic locomotive. However, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has broken that balance. In response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Germany has made significant changes in its defense policy, including raising its defense spending to more than 2 percent of its GDP. Berlin also wants to inject 100 billion euros into the country's armed forces.

These moves could worry France , and their leading roles in the EU may also face changes, Zhao Yongsheng said.

However, the two countries still have more common interests than differences. In next month's cabinet meeting, he said, he expects the two countries will work together to face challenges, including on the Russia-Ukraine conflict as well as how to respond to the US Inflation Reduction Act that they consider a threat to the EU's economy.

France and Germany are key engines that are very important for the EU's healthy development, Zhao Junjie said, and if tensions between them continue it will put the EU's development at risk.

However, both sides are rational enough to realize the importance of working together with each other, and have decided to sit down to find some common ground, he said, and they will push European integration forward in twists and turns.

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