France and Germany on Friday agreed to better integrate their energy markets and find common ground on EU green laws as part of a sweeping bilateral reset following years of bitter feuding over energy policy.
The EU’s two biggest economies gave their political backing to a new cross-border power line and the long-stalled “Southwestern” hydrogen pipeline network connecting Spain, Portugal, France and Germany at a ministerial meeting in Toulon, also attended by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The summit comes after years of friction between the countries over energy policy, including regarding subsidies for energy-intensive industries and nuclear power.
Now, an agreement at the 25th Franco-German Council of Ministers “seeks to reconcile policy differences and promote joint initiatives that can serve as a model for broader EU collaboration,” according to a press release.
The new “economic agenda” — spanning defense, industrial and digital policy — includes a pledge to conduct a joint study with Poland by 2026 on optimizing grid investments, and collaborate more closely on electricity-related rules such as network charges in order to lower energy prices.
Notably, the two capitals also vowed to “establish a cooperative working process” on efforts to slash red tape for businesses and align their climate policies.
In practice, that “might” lead to joint proposals to amend existing EU energy laws, the statement continued. It also addresses upcoming legal targets for 2040 that promote “non-discrimination among all … low-carbon energy technologies” — a common euphemism for nuclear power.
France, which relies heavily on atomic energy, has long fought for nuclear to take a more prominent role in EU climate goals. In recent months, Paris pushed Brussels to adopt a renewables target for 2040 that also includes nuclear — an effort EU energy chief Dan Jørgensen has so far resisted.
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