Macron vows to preserve Franco-German alliance

France's President Emmanuel Macron vowed Thursday that he was working hard to repair strained ties with Germany and to preserve the alliance underpinning EU unity, AFP reported.

"For me, my wish has always been to preserve European unity and also the friendship and the alliance between France and Germany," Macron said, ahead of an EU summit.

On Wednesday, France and Germany postponed a meeting between their governments, warning the usually close partners needed more time to find common ground on several issues.

Europe is struggling to cope with soaring energy costs triggered by Russia's military operation in Ukraine and Germany is under pressure from its partners to agree to a price cap on gas.

Berlin, in turn, is fighting to convince Paris to support a gas pipeline project to link gas terminals in Spain and Portugal across France to Germany.

The Franco-German friendship is often described as the motor of European unity and regular meetings between ministers hammer out much of the policy eventually put to the bloc as a whole.

But next week's planned get-together has been postponed until at least January, although Macron and Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz will see each other at the Brussels summit.

"As there were ministers who were not available on the German side, we preferred to postpone it, and also to prepare the decisions," Macron said.

"We cannot do routine things in a context that is exceptional, but we work together," he told reporters, playing down the postponement of the meeting as a technical issue,
"I think it's always better to consult and coordinate, and I think we need Germany and France to strengthen European sovereignty," he said. "We have a lot of work ahead of us."