21/06/2021
After the regional elections in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg in March 2021, the FDP is attracting more attention again, mainly because of its traditional role as a coalition party.
Germany (Cerfa)
The Study Committee on Franco-German Relations (Cerfa) was founded by an intergovernmental treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic in 1954. It has analyzed relations between the two countries for over 60 years. The Cerfa engages in a wide range of activities. It promotes the Franco-German debate and policy-oriented research through conferences and seminars that bring together experts, policy-makers, decision-makers and civil society representatives of both countries.
The Cerfa publishes regularly books reflecting on the current state of Franco-German relations and two research note series – Notes du Cerfa and Visions franco-allemandes – that target primarily French decision-makers, with the aim of elucidating political, economic and social evolutions in contemporary Germany, and closely following current developments in Franco-German relations.
The Cerfa maintains close relations with the network of German foundations and think-tanks, including the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Heinrich Böll Foundation, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Genshagen Foundation, French-German Institute (DFI), and German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).
Through its successive interactive and ad hoc cooperation programs, the Cerfa promotes the emergence of a new Franco-German generation:
- In the year 2021, the Cerfa started a Program on Multilateralism with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Paris. This program aims at creating a Franco-German network bringing together young professionals interested in the topic of multilateralism in the context of their work. It consists in working sessions based on briefings and workshops with selected experts and practitioners covering a broad range of issues relating to multilateralism, such as international trade, health, human rights and migration, non-proliferation and disarmament.
Previous initiatives:
- The Franco-German Future Dialogue co-organized by the Cerfa together with the DGAP and with the support of the Bosch Foundation aimed at creating a new Franco-German generation by developing exchanges and debates between French and German young professionals and PhD students.
- The Daniel Vernet Group (formerly the Franco-German group of reflection) had been founded in the Fall of the year 2014 at the initiative of the Genshagen Foundation.
Éric-André MARTIN
Secretary General of the Study Committee on Franco-German Relations (Cerfa)
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Marie KRPATA
Research Fellow, Study Committee on Franco-German Relations (Cerfa)
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Jeanette SÜẞ
Research Fellow, Study Committee on Franco-German Relations (Cerfa)
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Catherine NAIKER
Assistante
Hans STARK
Counselor on Franco-German relations at Ifri
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21/06/2021
The year 2020 was to be a pivotal year for (re)formulating Europe's Africa strategy. Germany and France were committed to strengthening relations between the two continents and to consolidating them at the sixth summit of the African Union and the European Union, which was postponed because of...
21/06/2021
The German EU presidency in the second half of 2020 was Angela Merkel’s last presidency, shortly before her chancellorship ends in 2021. It was therefore expected that the Chancellor would use all her experience and influence to achieve positive results.
21/06/2021
On July 1, 2020, Germany assumed the six-month EU Council Presidency, at a time of global pandemic crisis. This presidency has thus quickly become a “corona presidency” in its objectives and functioning, itself a victim of the pandemic.
04/05/2021
In late February 2021, Germany’s left-wing party Die Linke gave themselves a new party executive. The new team is supposed to lead the party into the federal elections in September and, if possible, into a national center-left government.
14/04/2021
In Germany's parliamentary democracy, political parties play an important role in mandating Bundeswehr missions abroad and in overseeing their deployment. The political debate on these deployments is polarized between opponents, who are called “pacifists”, and supporters, who are called ...
06/04/2021
2020 marked the beginning of the total phasing out of electricity production based on coal, as well as coal extraction in Germany. Laws implemented in 2020 concluded a governmental process started in 2015, which itself resulted from a prior broader debate on the role of coal in a viable and...
30/03/2021
To adapt its foreign policy to new challenges, Germany must overcome certain taboos inherited from its history.
25/03/2021
The global car market has been shrinking since 2018. This is a key economic sector for Germany whose producers belong to the Top 15 carmakers worldwide. Yet they are running the risk of being outclassed and eventually replaced, given emerging actors in the USA and China.
10/03/2021
Baden-Württemberg's economic and social structure offered good starting conditions for center-right parties from the beginning, which the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) initially knew how to use for itself. From 1953 to 2011 the Prime Minister belonged to the CDU. In 2011 the...
27/09/2017
The French president’s speech on ambitious EU reform met politely raised eyebrows in Germany as Berlin struggles to build a new government. Any other day, a two-hour plea from the French president for a stronger European Union would have sent politicians in Germany rushing for the nearest mic....
15/03/2017
The Netherlands and France are not the only founding member states of the European Union that see extreme right party’s on the rise. The “Alternative für Deutschland” gathers 10 percent of voting intentions in Germany – especially in the East. Some of its leaders don’t hesitate to use...
03/03/2017
The right-wing spiral of Germany’s anti-EU Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) has brought it shoulder to shoulder with France’s National Front (NF). The two parties see eye-to-eye on a number of issues, including Russia.
02/03/2017
The Swedish government has decided to reintroduce military conscription - a move backed by the country's MPs. Why is this happening? And how will it work? How does it impact regional security? And which other European countries have conscription?
20/02/2017
Angela Merkel loosing the elections in Germany could be one of the many electoral suprises in 2017. Surveys on voting intentions for the legislative elections in September show that her opponent Martin Schulz (social-democrat) has started overtaking her.
08/02/2017
On Germanys second channel, ZDF, Barbara Kunz enlarges upon the French presidential election in May.
27/01/2017
Martin Schulz will be the SPDs candidate for the general elections in 2017, facing the CDUs Angela Merkel. Could his arrival threaten the Chancellor and reinvigorate a rather dull looking SPD?
13/01/2017
The leaders of the extreme right-wing AfD party, Alternative for Germany, intend to take advantage of the attack on the Christmas market in Berlin to challenge the German Chancellors welcoming policy : 1 million refugees arrived between 2015 and 2016, they argue that in welcoming them, she...
30/12/2016
What political future for the German Chancellor Angela Merkel after a year characterised by the New Years incident in Cologne and the attack in Berlin?
