Assessing the Influence of France and Germany on EU Foreign and Security Policy

France and Germany have highly contributed to the creation of the CFSP (Common foreign and security policy) in the early 1990s. They are both involved in the recent relaunch of the European defence project. However, the franco-german relationship has also experienced difficulties in the framework of CFSP, on in EU external action more generally. The German refusal to contribute to a military intervention in Libya is one example among others (2011).

This paper assesses the influence of the franco-german ‘tandem’ on the development of a European foreign and security policy since the 1990s. The objective is to check whether political cohesion between the two member states is a necessary and sufficient condition for the EU to emerge as an actor on the international arena.

The first section looks at political cohesion between the two member states on two ranges of issues: the building of a European foreign and security policy at ‘constitutional’ level; the content of EU foreign and security policy. Then, a second section tries to establish a correlation between franco-german cohesion and the existence of a EU position, or lack thereof. Finally, a third section explains why franco-german cohesion is a necessary but insufficient condition for the EU to gain actorness, by looking at other variables pertaining to domestic politics, European politics (degree on consensus among EU actors) and the international environment.