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Franco-German agreement

01 January 1997

At their bilateral summit in Neurenberg in December 1996 Germany and France reached a confidential accord on a "Joint Franco German Security and Defence Concept". The document was leaked to the French daily newspaper Le Monde and was made public on 28 January. In it the French president and the German chancellor announced that they would work to bind their armed forces as closely together as possible within "a European and trans-Atlantic framework". The agreement also specified that Europe's security and defence policy should, in the future, be determined by the European Council and that the Western European Union (WEU) should step by step integrate into the EU. There was also agreement on consultation before launching overseas military intervention.

The agreement between the two countries to initiate a "dialogue on the future role of nuclear deterrence in the context of a European Defence Policy" is important. According to German military analyst, Otfried Nassauer, of the Berlin Information Centre for Transatlantic Security (BITS): "There can be no single European Union state while Britain and France insist on keeping their nuclear weapons under national control. Thus, there is a clear need for European nations to engage in discussions about the future of these arsenals. But there is also a clear need to avoid the slippery slope into shared command and control arrangements. Shared command and control entails a breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty."

France and Germany have been holding consultations over nuclear weapons since 1992 when they established the "Anglo-French Joint Commission on Nuclear Policy". France's socialist opposition criticised the tighter military ties with Germany, saying that it signalled a "NATO-isation" of French defences.

Gemeinsames Deutsch-Franzoesisches Sicherheits- und Verteidi-gungskonzept - Deutsch-Franzoesischer Verteidigungs- und Sitcher-heitsrat (Common German-French Security and Defence Concept -German-French Defence and Security Council); Press Release BITS,
27.1.97; Jane's Defence Weekly, 5.2.97