Who really leads the European Union?

Into Europe: France and Germany are the European Union's largest countries in terms of population and economies, and as founding members, are at the heart of the European project. Their special relationship is one of reconciliation, but also one that allows them to wield significant influence in the EU's institutions.

So what is the French German partnership, where does it come from, and how is it changing?

00:00 Introduction
00:41 1-The start of the French-German relationship and the EU
03:24 2-An unbalanced relationship
04:57 3-How much influence do France and Germany have?
07:28 4-Crisis resolution
09:07 5-The future of the partnership

Music:
Epidemic Sounds

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[Kafei]

Difficult question to answer. Germany is an economic powerhouse, France isn't far behind but has a strong army (with its own nuclear deterrance) and a permanent seat in the US (for what it's worth). Other country like Italy must not be forgotten they're not far behind too. And the recent event showed us than central and eastern nation has a strong voice too.
So I think EU has no clear leader, everyone matters and it's great.

[KommentarSpaltenKrieger]

I think it is just like this. Competing groups of countries aligned on certain issues are continually trying to make their impact felt on EU policy, often with the need for big compromises. The German-French partnership is just the biggest and oldest of these arrangements.

[Corvi]

We all know that the real answer is Andorra 😎🇦🇩

[pehash]

I'm from eastern EU and i think that if 2 different countries and former enemies can form a union, then there's nothing wrong with them assuming the informal leadership role. Its an example of compromise that the EU needs examples of. EU is a huge pot of mixed cultures and visions so in order for it to live in peace and stability, it needs compromise. And what better example for compromise than France and Germany.
Moving forward however, they should be more open to advice from eastern block countries like Poland and Romania when it comes to dealing with Russia. They know whats up.

[mrghostly]

I am from Poland, and looking at germany and france. I just like the fact of what they've created. It's better to be friends, than to be enemies.

[pauluk]

It's usually the Germans and the French but in truth, even thought they are the big players in the union, they can't get anything done unless there is enough support from enough other members, so even thought some members can guide the direction of the union, no individual member actually runs the union.

With that said, bigger members like Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland are always going to have a bigger say based on their economics and population size and rightly so.

In any case, there's always going to need enough broad support from big and small members to pass or block new laws and changes but with all that said, clearly the balance is shifting in favour of Germany and other more central European countries and mostly because of EU expansion which opens up more trade and other benefits with the eastern EU countries and it's usually always neighbouring countries that benefit the most, throw in that Brexit happened which is closer to France, it's easy to see how the balance can shift, but in the end, it doesn't really matter because there's always going to be a need for broad support to pass something and in that sense, no one country runs the EU, they all do.

As for the vision for the EU, that's not going to be determine by any individual EU members and more likely to be determine outside powers like the US, China and a rising India, in other words, the EU will change in areas that it needs to do so they can better compete with them on the world stage, in other words, expect a lot more integration in key areas, regardless of wants, the alternative is that we get pushed aside by the other big powers around the world which could have a big negative impact on the economy, politics and even our social systems which I'm sure many of you know, the US and China would love to water them down, so yeah, expect more integration, not because we want it, but to protect our interest.

[yannikkrautkraemer]

Following you for while now and I have to say, your production quality really improved! Especially your dynamic maps look fantastic & the inclusion of experts is adding significant contentual value. Great Job 👌🏻

[Micha-qvuf]

It makes me sad that somebody like Marine Le Pen, who openly says she wants to cut off all ties to germany entirely, is able concentrate such a high vote share on herself. I have always been proud of the german-french friendship. I have been in France several times through school partnership programs and also privately. I'm really sad that so many people in France don't share that emotion :(

[yannik]

We are the strongest when all members of our European brotherhood work together. We need each other. We are all the same. Greetings from Germany!

[Feeshermon]

Fantastic video, worthy of 1 million+ views. It's very exciting to see your Europe channel produce such good content for an under-served continent on Youtube.

[aquarius]

Hi from Germany and thank you for the video. Yes there will definintely more eastern influence with new members from the east joining. "Wandel durch Handel" has totally failed, you can't really change Russia and China 😬
I think we should listen more to the French in terms of strategic autonomy of the EU...

[tonyhawk]

I don't think the Ukrainian war put in question the French idea of strategic autonomy, on the contrary. If europe had followed this strategy earlier it would have been easier to organize and send weapons to Ukraine and less rely on Russian or US energy as it is the case to day.

[walli]

5:45 Thing is: German is the language with the most speakers. Around 23 % of EU citizens have it as their first language. Before that even more.

[minimax]

As a german : Nonsense: The EU protects smaller countries and they can interfere and stop what they want. EG Hungary, Luxembourg, ....this is why the Eu is so "popular" amongst small countries and they want to join the EU.

[elbentos]

Countries ability to influence the UE block is a multi-tier reality :
- in the first tiers, you have Germany and France (UK belonged to this tiers, but now, it's history).
- in the second tier, you have Italy, Spain and Poland.
- in the third tier, one can find Low Countries, Belgium and Sweden
- afterwards, you have a motley group of moderate regional power countries such as Romania, Denmark, Portugal, Greece, Czechia, Hungary... and the very tiny but inflential Luxemburg.

[wolfy]

Don't be fooled, Belgium is leading the whole of Europe. And soon the whole word! Our farmers just have to move some borderstones again.

[zedero]

Great video as always, keep it up! ❤️🇪🇺

How I see it is that the seeming Franco-German hegemony is a direct consequence of a lack of clear (con)-federal structures in the EU, which allows those two countries to still use their power outside of the frame of the Union in order to influence decisions within it.

But, as you pointed out, it’s only natural for the two biggest countries of the Union to have a heavier say on the matters (again, as long as there are no clear federal structures) since they’re the backbone of it.

With the right reforms in the EU, we can ensure further equality among the various states. We have to transform it in such a way that the bigger countries cannot dominate and allow smaller countries to feel like they’re being treated unfairly. (This is kind of already the case, like for example a Maltese person’s vote in the EP has 5 times or something the power of a German person’s vote)

Their astounding cooperation, though, can be used as a culprit for other countries that used to be enemies. The whole Franco-German axis thing should be seen more as something worthy to imitate rather than something to baselessly accuse of trying to conquer the Union.

[devamjani]

France is the most important country for Europe. It is the only country in Europe beside Russia which has independent space access, which it has donated to Europe by ESA ( European Space Agency ) of which France is still the largest contributor. France has the ability to independently develop every military hardware and does so, it is the only country in Europe whose military is totally independent of usa, it is a nuclear power, it is an energy exporter and ensures energy security of the entire Europe, it is simply legendary.

[Squig]

As a german I allways find it weird, why in all the news outlets you almost exlusivly you hear german or french opinion on EU Matter. Third in line is surprisingly allways that dude from Luxemburg, who shouldnt be of any importants. I think it would be much better to treat the EU members as equals (acording to size, fuck of Luxemburg) and also hear spanish and polish opinions and so on.

[EUMadeSimple]

Nice video :).
I think the EU could consider a tiered model, where some countries (e.g. France, Germany, Benelux, etc.) Integrate more closely while other countries don't. Currently, with the VETO vote in the Council each country can stop EU foreign policy legislation making things very difficult. Macron mentioned something like this yesterday... Interesting times ahead