France and Germany will sign a new friendship treaty today, seeking to boost an alliance at the heart of the European Union as Britain bows out and with nationalism rising around the continent.
The French presidency said it was an “important moment” for showing the relationship was “a bedrock which can relaunch itself … in the service of reinforcing the European project”.
Aachen, which sits on the Dutch and Belgian borders, is rich in European symbolism as the seat of power of Charlemagne, the 1st-century emperor who ruled over swathes of western Europe.
“We’re seeing an existential crisis in terms of European integration, with Brexit and the expected strengthening of nationalists at the next European elections,” said Claire Demesmay, a political scientist at German research institute DGAP.
“In this context, confirming this belief in Franco-German cooperation has symbolic value,” she told German public radio.
Both leaders will sign the deal on the anniversary of a similar Franco-German cooperation treaty in 1963 by France’s Charles de Gaulle and the German chancellor of the time, Konrad Adenauer.