The Illusion of European Political Union: French President Macron's slogan, "a sovereign France in a sovereign Europe," is absurd.

• Author: Issing, Otmar

The process of European integration after World War II started out as a political project. Franco-German reconciliation was an essential foundation and also played a central role later on. Attempts at political union proved premature and, like the idea of a European Defence Community, came to nothing. With the founding of the European Economic Community in 1958, Europe embarked on the path of economic integration, restricted at first to the western part of the continent. This culminated in the Single Market for twenty-seven countries. The introduction of the euro as the common currency of initially eleven member states of the European Union, as well as bringing the Common Market to completion, gave rise to the European Central Bank, an institution that can generally be understood as a state-building element. No further steps towards a political union have been taken in the ensuing years.

With the initiatives of French President Emmanuel Macron and the change of government in Germany, the idea of a fiscal union has gained momentum. The coalition agreement of Germany's new government asserts: "A European Union that is more democratically sound, more capable of action, and more strategically sovereign will provide the basis for our peace, prosperity, and freedom." And a few lines later: the Conference on the Future of Europe "should result in a constitutional convention and lead to further development into a European federal state."

In a federal state--a political union--the member states irrevocably transfer their fiscal sovereignty to the higher European level. The constituent element is a European government, elected democratically, which notably makes decisions on matters of taxation and central public expenditure. This government is answerable to a European Parliament, composed and elected according to democratic rules. Some leading German politicians see their position as aligned with the French president. Shortly after taking office, Macron gave a grand, if not visionary, speech on the future of Europe at the Sorbonne. In his election campaign for the new presidency, Macron wants to place Europe back in the spotlight under the slogan: "A sovereign France in a sovereign Europe."

So are both parts of the much-vaunted Franco-German tandem pursuing the same goal? It is hard to imagine a greater misunderstanding. For all the esteem in which Franco-German friendship is held, at no time in post-war history was France prepared to even consider giving up its sovereignty. Chancellor Helmut Kohl, on the other hand, was adamant in the Maastricht negotiations on Europe's future monetary and economic union that parallel preparations should be made for a political union. It was France's resistance in particular that nipped in the bud any further discussion of the idea. Nothing has fundamentally changed in the French position to date--and with his emphasis on a sovereign France, Macron could not express this any more clearly. No French president will dare to even philosophize about giving up sovereignty.

The significance of this observation for European politics cannot be overestimated. The notion on the German side that political union is the future of the European Union to strive for, the "finalite' of the European unification process, must simply be labeled an illusion for the foreseeable future. The fundamental divergence between the French and German positions is enough to warrant this verdict, not to mention the fact that a successful procedure for the...