A researcher said that ‘the balance is shifting, including in countries such as Germany’ on the role of nuclear weapons in Europe’s strategic ambitions. 

France, the EU’s sole nuclear power since Britain’s exit from the bloc, was to unveil how it intends to use its atomic arsenal as a deterrent. French President Emmanuel Macron, in an address to military officers graduating in Paris yesterday, was expected to recommit to upgrading France’s capacity, at a time when NATO allies, who would ordinarily look to the US in a nuclear standoff, worry about Washington’s retreat from the multilateral stage.

France, the European Union's sole nuclear power since Britain's exit from the bloc, will unveil Friday how it intends to use its atomic arsenal as a deterrent in an increasingly unstable world.

NATO’s 70th turned out to be less like a birthday party and more a Thanksgiving dinner for a large dysfunctional family: Not all of them got on, a few snide remarks were made, but in the end everyone seemed to accept they’re stuck with each other. “We had a very successful meeting,” said an evidently relieved Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, citing the unity she had seen among the alliance’s 29 leaders. “So I’m very pleased.”

Paris (CNN) - Nobody likes to hear that an old friend is "brain dead," so perhaps it's not surprising that France's allies seem to be going through the seven stages of grief over Emmanuel Macron's pronouncement in the Economist last month that NATO is languishing.

French Finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday that the US threat to impose duties of up to 100% on ‎€2.17 billion in imports from France was "unacceptable" and that the EU stood ready to "respond strongly" in case Washington went ahead with the plan. The US government announced also on Monday it was considering the new tariffs on Champagne, handbags, cheese and other products, after concluding that France's new digital services tax would harm US tech companies.

The debate on the financial perspectives of the European Union (EU) is traditionally part of a complex dramaturgy, which borders on the cacophony: the proponents of more European solidarity oppose supporters of a fair return, defenders of traditional sectoral policies confront the promoters of expenses intended to prepare for the future, new member states are pitted against the old ones and the North against the South.

An interview with Sophia Besch, Research Fellow, Center for European Reform.

Nicolas Sarkozy used to promote himself as a transatlanticist or anglophile French president. Emmanuel Macron seems to have taken this approach a step further. Macron appears to have taken upon France and himself the responsibility of not allowing Britain and more importantly, the United States to drift too far away from Europe. Is he succeeding in this?