The Brief – Could Weimar Triangle become the EU’s very own G7?

The EU needs a new strategic agenda after June’s election while the world is burning, the bloc’s future is at stake, and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán is playing hardball – Weimar Triangle to the rescue? 

It is hard not to feel like the Weimar Triangle – France, Germany, and Poland – has been overdone in the media recently.

It is probably safe to say that the overwhelming majority had never heard of this construct until leaders decided last year to dig it out from the closet of tried and failed post-Cold War ideas.

Suddenly, the Weimar approach is being hailed everywhere as the panacea for all evil that engulfs the three countries, including curing the long-suffering Franco-German friendship. 

There is little, it seems, that the Weimar Triangle cannot do. 

But even now, after having covered countless Weimar Triangle meetings, this reporter is struggling to find a catchy description that sums up what exactly it is.  

Is it a forum, a diplomatic platform, a dialogue format, or an alliance?  

Let’s be honest – the simplest explanation is probably that whenever representatives of France, Germany, and Poland meet, they call it a Weimar Triangle meeting. 

Historically, it has hardly ever lived up to being more than that.

Befallen by ‘End of History’ euphoria, the three countries’ foreign ministers had unveiled the format as a talk shop to integrate Eastern European countries into Western structures shortly after the Iron Curtain came down. 

Since then, the Triangle’s Wikipedia page reads like a protocol of leaders vowing to revive it every five years or so – “No, for real this time”. 

That is basically what happened again when Donald Tusk regained power in Poland last autumn.  

Before that, the format had once more gone through one of those dormant periods between the regular ‘grand revival’ announcements, as Poland’s previous hard-right government was – diplomatically speaking – not very interested in fraternising much with Germany. 

But at the risk of being proven wrong, like everyone else who ever uttered this phrase – this time, it feels different. 

That became clear last week when the Triangle’s foreign ministers unveiled the Weimar Agenda, outlining a number of foreign and security policy measures they want to implement throughout the EU’s next five-year mandate. 

A signal for the next mandate?

For context: Following the EU elections, the bloc’s leaders must decide on the priorities for the next Commission in June.  

More than ever, the tasks are daunting: preparing the EU for a possible Russian attack and playing catch-up with America and China. Meanwhile, Viktor Orbán is ready to make it all come crashing down, which appeared to unnerve even battle-hardened EU diplomats this week. 

Against this backdrop, the Weimar meeting hinted that the three countries increasingly see the Triangle as the EU’s own G7, an inner-circle club where three of the bloc’s most important economies commit to implementing ideas when others are too slow.  

“The Weimar Triangle is intended to be a think tank that provides impulses for Europe,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters at the meeting in Weimar. 

Thinking one bold step ahead, another mothballed 1990s concept that was recently revived springs to mind: The idea of a multi-speed Europe, whereby a coalition of willing countries moves forward with integration, with others gradually following suit. 

Merely creating a regularised and institutionalised format for the forum could already move the Triangle well in that direction.

Not only could this help tackle the EU’s deadlock and provide a framework for how the bloc could enlarge with new members, which currently seem hardly ready to join.

It could also provide an insurance against the next round of disinterest in the Triangle among the three Weimar partners – just to ensure that it does not need life support again in a couple months. 

The Roundup

Germany and the US publicly backed Ukraine in targeting Russian territory with their weapons, breaking an important taboo and secret surrounding the rules Kyiv must follow in repealing Moscow’s attack.

During a visit to Stockholm for a summit with Nordic leaders on Friday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed security deals with Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic prime ministers, while insisting on the need for his country to obtain certain military equipment such as the American Patriot defence system.

Although the centre-left Social Democratic Party (LSDP) is currently polling well ahead of Lithuania’s other parties in the run-up to the European elections, the expected low voter turnout due to election fatigue could favour the current ruling Homeland Union-Christian Democrats of Lithuania (EPP).

The European Commission designated online fashion retailer Temu as a “very large online platform” (VLOP) under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) on Friday.

Representatives of Malaysia’s indigenous peoples, along with climate and human rights NGOs, urged the European Commission to involve civil society in discussions about the EU’s anti-deforestation regulation (EUDR) during a visit to Brussels this week.

EU energy ministers committed to work towards deeper integration of the European electricity grid and to facilitate longer-term and more cross-border planning at Thursday’s meeting of the Energy Council, the last under Belgium’s six-month Council presidency.

At a breakfast meeting before Thursday’s Energy Council, the EU’s pro-renewables countries agreed to push the incoming Commission for more policies favouring their technology.

While EU-UK relations are largely off the table in the UK’s General Election campaign, an initiative to secure EU mobility rights for British musicians is gaining traction after Labour’s shadow economy minister spoke in favour of change this week.

France’s regulator Arcep is not fully on board with the European Commission’s ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to deregulating its telecoms sector, president Laure de la Raudière said in a speech on Thursday.

Further on, Arcep: Big Tech should be made accountable for their environmental footprint at the EU level by being incentivised to design digital services sustainably, Arcep’s President Laure de la Raudière said in a speech on Thursday.

Civil society organisations have called for swift action on tobacco at the EU level while expressing disappointment at the European Commission’s delays in addressing tobacco usage in several legislative files.

European People’s Party (EPP) members’ attempts to exclude the Greens from the post-election coalition majority will backfire in post-election negotiations, Green lead candidate Terry Reintke told Euractiv after EPP members doubted the Greens’ suitability as a partner.

Against a backdrop of hybrid warfare and continuous security crises, Armenian civil society is striving to institutionalise mechanisms to combat disinformation.

Last but definitely not least: For more policy news, check out this week’s Tech Brief, Agrifood Brief, and the Economy Brief.

Look out for…

• Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni participates in Bilderberg Meeting in Madrid on Friday-Saturday.
• Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi takes part in Third High Level Political Forum in Sarajevo on Monday.

Views are the author’s

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Alice Taylor]