You would not guess it from looking at us, but my French colleague and I are exactly twenty years apart. Dear Jean-Noël, you were born in 1983 – hopefully I am not revealing any state secrets – and I in 1963.

In other words, I was born in the very year when President and Chancellor signed the Élysée Treaty.

Of course, that is a coincidence. Not a personal plan by my parents. But I would like to take it as a certain personal mandate.

Because today, that treaty still provides valuable guidance. The questions that Adenauer and de Gaulle asked themselves at the time are – unfortunately, I must say – far from outdated.

How should Europe position itself in the systemic confrontation between East and West? How can we strengthen Europe’s ability to act without creating new divisions within the European community?

And above all, the issue of Europe’s security looms large.

One thing is clear: We are living through an exceptional moment in history.

For the first time in generations, Europe is confronted with two wars directly at its borders: a war of aggression on our own continent – and a war in the Middle East.

I only returned from the region last week.

In such a situation, one thing becomes clear once again: we in Europe must stand together. And we must make Europe’s security our top priority.

Only a united Europe can bring its strategic weight to bear.

Only a united Europe can effectively address the impact of war on its population.

Only a united Europe can prevent other powers from exploiting this moment to weaken Europe.

And Europe can only be united when Germany and France stand together – whether in concrete interests and measures, or in the shared determination to finding compromise.

It is precisely in moments like these that the strength of the Franco-German partnership becomes evident: keeping Europe capable of acting in times of crisis.

But a closer look at the history and the lead-up to the Élysée Treaty shows that things were not always quite as harmonious as the famous fraternal embrace between Adenauer and de Gaulle might have suggested.

None of this happened automatically. The Élysée Treaty itself was concluded at a time of hard-edged power politics – at the height of the Cold War, only a few months after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you ask who first had the idea for the treaty, many historians will give the same answer: France.

And the initiative for the European Coal and Steel Community – in a sense the “germ cell” of what would become today’s European Union, whose 75th anniversary we are celebrating this year – also goes back to two Frenchmen.

Long story short: many of the great advances in European integration began with a French impulse.

But we also know this: Europe needs both of us. To quote Helmut Kohl: “Europe needs France and Germany as the core and motor for the realization of the European Union and a united Europe.”

When France and Germany reach agreement, it matters.

That is why, for decades, the Franco-German engine has been the central driving force behind European integration.

And yes, sometimes this engine sputters a little.

Then we simply have to give it more revs.

After all, we share the same goal: Europe must become stronger – and more modern.

To achieve that, we need reforms.

To name just a few: EU decision-making is based on thorough analysis and comprehensive exchange. Yet, we must mitigate the risk of decisions being taken too slowly and too late.

We need to make cooperation amongst Member States more flexible and extend qualified majority voting in distinct policy fields.

When we speak about reforms, we also need to talk about a more dynamic enlargement process. Enlargement policy is our strongest instrument for stabilizing our continent.

On all of this, we are in agreement.

We must seize this unique window of opportunity now.

Dear Jean-Noël, we are already working together on many good ideas. We are also awaiting the ideas from the European Commission on internal reforms soon.

There is no purely national answer to the challenges of our time.

Nor is there an exclusively Franco-German one.

But what we do need is Franco-German unity as the prerequisite for Europe’s capacity to act.

There is no alternative to that.