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We demonstrate this every day in a wide range of areas and at many different levels – between our governments, between Germany’s federal states (Länder) and France’s regions and departments, and above all in the close exchange between towns, cities and municipalities, associations, schools and universities – in other words, between people. This close cooperation is also reflected by the growing number of joint foreign policy initiatives between the two countries.

Security policy cooperation between Germany and France is very close, too, and has intensified even further since Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine began in February 2022. In addition to other meetings, the Franco-German Defence and Security Council provides a specific forum for discussing current security policy and strategic issues – also with a view to implementing the Treaty of Aachen. The Council last convened on 29 August 2025 in Toulon, France.

The two countries hold intergovernmental consultations, the so-called Franco-German Council of Ministers, on an annual basis. Most recently, President Macron hosted members of the German Government in this format on 29 August 2025 in Toulon. The focus was on the Franco-German business agenda, encompassing the areas of energy, trade and economic security, industry policy, cutting-edge technology, digital sovereignty, competitiveness and bureaucracy reduction, convergence and labour market/social policy as well as financial policy. Twenty-seven concrete beacon projects were agreed within the context of the business agenda.

The Élysée Treaty and the Treaty of Aachen – foundations of the Franco-German partnership

On 22 January 1963, the foundations for the reconciliation between the two countries and their bilateral cooperation were laid by an international treaty: the Élysée Treaty. The close cooperation between the two governments and the establishment on 5 July 1963 of the Franco-German Youth Office for the promotion of youth exchange are important cornerstones of the Treaty that have stood the test of time. In 2019, with the signing of the Treaty of Aachen by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, the partnership was further deepened and intensified, focusing on new challenges, and placed at the service of Europe and the European Union. The Treaty is injecting new impetus into relations between the two countries, not least in the areas of security and defence, business, digitisation, culture, civil society, cross-border issues and climate policy.

A list of 15 priority projects was adopted in 2019 when the Treaty of Aachen was signed, the majority of which have now been implemented. These include the Franco-German Citizens’ Fund, which has already supported more than 4000 projects for an active European civil society since its creation in April 2020. The Franco-German cultural institutes are the cultural pillars of the Treaty of Aachen. The goal is to establish institutes with an integrated local structure, a multilingual staff and joint Franco-German programmes, under a joint management. Currently there are three Franco-German cultural institutes: Palermo (opened in 2021), Ramallah (opened in 2022) and Atlanta (opened in 2022). Further institutes are planned. The Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee, which is composed of representatives of the national governments, the national parliaments, the Länder and regions or départements and cross-border regional and local authorities in what are known as eurodistricts, was established to foster cooperation in the border regions. This body aims to identify and remove obstacles to cross-border coexistence.

Creating new networks for the young generation

It is important to keep on renewing the dense network of Franco-German ties among the younger generations in particular. With this in mind, then-Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron launched the Franco-German young people’s network Generation Europe at the Franco-German Council of Ministers in 2023. The idea behind the network is for young people up to the age of 35 from a wide range of backgrounds to bring their personal strengths and experience to bear in the service of Franco-German cooperation. In January 2026, the fourth cohort of Generation Europe commenced its work.

Other socio-political initiatives as well as strategies to promote each other’s language also help to foster mutual understanding between France and Germany. Franco-German cooperation is not something that can be taken for granted, but something that is achieved and experienced every day anew.

Cross-border cooperation between Germany and France

The diversity and benefits of Franco-German cooperation are reflected in the everyday lives of people in the border regions. Government bodies as well as business are becoming ever more interconnected. Examples of this include the joint management and maintenance of the Rhine, the expansion of cross-border access to health services and the construction of the first cross-border tramline between Kehl and Strasbourg. The two countries’ cooperation is also future-oriented, with projects such as the cross-border 5G project between Saarbrücken and Metz and the trilateral academic alliance European Campus – EUCOR, which is made up of the universities of Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Strasbourg, Colmar/Mulhouse and Basel.

Since the mid-1970s, a series of bodies and structures have been established for cross-border cooperation with France – in the Upper Rhine area (trilateral formats with France and Switzerland: the Upper Rhine Conference, Upper Rhine Council and Upper Rhine Intergovernmental Commission) and the Greater Region around the Saar and Moselle (with France, Luxembourg and Belgium). Furthermore, the 2019 Treaty of Aachen established the Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee.

Minister of State Gunther Krichbaum and his French counterpart Benjamin Haddad recently anchored their commitment to cross-border cooperation and to concrete projects in a joint Action Plan on cross-border cooperation on the fringes of the Franco-German Council of Ministers in Toulon in August 2025.

From repairing to preventing problems

Border areas are inherently a place where differing legal regulations collide, and these regulations often prove incompatible, whether in a quite practical context when going to the doctor’s on the other side of the border, in cross-border access to digital administration services or structurally in differing implementation of EU legislation in national laws. Cross-border obstacles such as these could be prevented during the preparation of new laws if efforts were made to identify and take into consideration the regulatory impact on border areas.

How could these impact assessments work in practice? The Treaty of Aachen tasks the Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee with carrying out an analysis of the impact of new regulations on the border regions. The Federal Foreign Office therefore commissioned a study in 2022, liaising closely with the French Foreign Affairs Ministry, that offers some initial insight into how impact assessments for the French-German border regions might be implemented. The study by the Euro-Institut in Kehl, Maastricht University and the French agency for cross-border cooperation Mission Opérationelle Transfrontalière can be viewed or downloaded in French and German.

Building on the analysis and the proposals set out in the study, the Cross-Border Cooperation Committee has drafted a regulatory impact assessment (“Grenzraum-Check”). This is currently being tested in Germany and France in a pilot phase. It also ties in with the German Government’s modernisation agenda within the context of the better regulation objective. Meanwhile, the Federal Foreign Office is consulting with the relevant ministries in a range of different areas to examine the possibility of eliminating obstacles to daily life in border areas by modifying legal and administrative provisions, including by adopting certain exceptions (“experimentation clauses”), an option which is enshrined in the Treaty of Aachen.

Find out more

• Germany and France: bilateral relations
• German Embassy in Paris
• Franco-German Youth Office
• Website of the Franco-German University
• Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on Franco-German Cooperation and Integration (Treaty of Aachen) (without signatures, accessible) (in German)