At a time when the accumulation of differences between the two countries has never been so apparent, France and Germany need to regain trust and engage in in-depth dialogue, writes Jean-Dominique Giuliani.

The People's Party (PP) led by Alberto Nunez Feijoo is the favourite in the early parliamentary elections on 23 July. It is credited with 32.1% of voting intentions ahead of the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) of outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (29%). Vox, a right-wing populist party, would obtain 13.9% and Sumar (S) (Unite), a coalition of radical left-wing parties, 13.6%. The rest of the votes would go to the regional parties, of which there are many in Spain. These parties could deprive the PP or the PSOE of a majority. In the last two parliamentary elections (2015 and 2019), the Spanish people had to go back to vote a few months after the first elections, which failed to produce a majority. Will the scenario be the same in 2023?

In response to the economic and social consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Union has set up a €672.5 billion recovery fund. On 26 and 27 June, the Commission gave a positive assessment of the requests from Malta, France and Slovakia to amend their plans to include a REPowerEU chapter. The Commission gave a positive preliminary assessment to Romania's second payment request for €3.22 billion. The Foundation offers you an interactive map of the plans country by country, to check out the amounts and schedules.

The 27 Heads of State and Government, meeting in Brussels on 29 and 30 June, repeated their support for Ukraine and asked the Commission to study the possibility of using seized Russian assets to finance reconstruction. They discussed economic and industrial policy and called on the institutions to rapidly adopt measures for competitiveness and resilience. In conclusions on migration published separately due to opposition from Hungarian and Polish leaders, the European Council reiterated its determination to break the business model of smugglers and to reach an agreement on the management of asylum seekers.

On 26 June, the Commission announced that 41 new joint research and development projects will receive €832 million from the European Defence Fund. These include the E-NACSOS project for naval air and missile defence, the REACTII project for the management of electronic warfare resources in the air sector and the ODIN'S EYE II project for European space capabilities.

On 27 June, the European Parliament's Environment Committee rejected the draft regulation on nature restoration, which will be submitted to the next plenary session. On the same day, the committee adopted its position on the revision of the Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater Directive and the Environmental Quality Standards Directive. It also adopted a report on the revision of the air quality directives. In particular, MEPs want to harmonise air quality indices.

The Ministers for European Affairs discussed the work to revise the rules governing the election of Members of the European Parliament. They adopted the Council's work programme for the period from 1 July 2023 to 31 December 2024. Finally, they approved the country-by-country recommendations for the European Semester, as well as the free trade agreement between the European Union and New Zealand, which can now be formally signed.

The 10th meeting of the Cooperation Council between the European Union and Tajikistan saw the start of negotiations on a new enhanced partnership and cooperation agreement on 26 June. The two parties discussed trade, energy supply, governance, the rule of law, the protection of human rights and the strengthening of civil society.

On 27 June, the European Court of Auditors published a report on the targets set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It notes that there is little evidence that companies' actions will be sufficient to achieve the target of a 55% reduction by 2030. It notes that the European Union would probably not have achieved its 2020 energy efficiency target had it not been for the decrease in energy consumption caused by the 2009 financial crisis and then the COVID-19 pandemic.

The European Central Bank held its annual forum in Sintra, Portugal, from 26 to 28 June. In her opening speech, President Christine Lagarde said it was too early to predict an end to interest rate hikes, given the uncertainties surrounding inflation.

On 27 June, Europol and Eurojust announced that the infiltration and dismantling of the EncroChat encrypted communications network had led to the arrest of 6,658 people, including 197 particularly wanted criminals, as well as the seizure of €900 million in criminal funds, more than 260 tonnes of drugs and hundreds of weapons, vehicles and properties.

On 27 June, the Council and Parliament reached an agreement on the reform of banking rules under the Basel III accords. The negotiators reached agreement on how the "capital floor" will be implemented. On 29 June, they reached a provisional agreement on the revision of the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) and the Second Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments (MiFID II).

On 28 June, Bulgarian Iliana Ivanova, a member of the European Court of Auditors, was chosen to become Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. If her nomination is approved by the Council and Parliament, she will succeed Mariya Gabriel.

On 29 June, the British courts ruled that the plan to deport migrants who had arrived in the UK illegally to Rwanda was unlawful. The Court of Appeal ruled that Rwanda could not be considered a safe third country, and identified "a real risk that those sent to Rwanda would be returned to their country of origin".

The international High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, used his powers on 1 July to annul controversial laws adopted by the Bosnian Serb entity, which refuses to recognise the decisions of the country's Constitutional Court.

On 25 and 26 June, the prime ministers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Åland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Canada met in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland. The aim was to discuss how to respond to the various security threats posed by the war in Ukraine. The participants pledged to strengthen security and defence cooperation in their respective regions. They also stressed the need to cooperate in the face of global challenges, notably climate change.

On 28 June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met his Polish and Lithuanian counterparts, Andrzej Duda and Gitana Nauseda, in Kyiv, as part of the "Lublin Triangle". Discussions focused on preparations for the NATO summit on 11 and 12 July in Vilnius, Ukraine's integration into the European Union, and preparations for the World Peace Summit.

On 28 June, the Institute for Economics and Peace published the 17th edition of its Global Peace Index, which measures the scale of conflicts around the world. It shows that 2022 was the year with the highest number of conflict-related deaths since the beginning of the century. The Ethiopian conflict claimed the most victims in 2022. In Ukraine, 65% of men aged between 20 and 24 fled the country or died in the conflict. In addition, almost 79 countries experienced an increase in the level of conflict, and the global economic impact of this rise in violence is estimated to have increased by 17% in 2022, or an additional $1,000 billion.

In May, the unemployment rate in the European Union was 5.9%, down 0.1% on April. In the eurozone, it was 6.5%, according to a Eurostat estimate published on 30 June.

Manfred Kontz has published "Robert Schuman, Eine Biografie in Zeitzeugenberichten" (Robert Schuman, Une biographie en témoignages) in German, published by Brill | Schöningh. In this book, the author pays tribute to the " Father of Europe ", committed to Franco-German reconciliation and to a European future free of war, hatred and poverty.

Until 28 April 2024, the Verdun Memorial in Fleury-devant-Douaumont is hosting the "Destins de Verdun" exhibition. The latter uses sound and text to tell the stories of twenty people who were directly or indirectly involved in the Battle of Verdun. To emphasise the importance of family memory, descendants of French and German soldiers also tell the story of their ancestors.