When the Berlin Wall came down 9 November 1989, tensions were high between France and Germany, explained Jouyet, who is now president of France's financial Markets authority.
Indeed, French President François Mitterrand was holding the EU's rotating presidency since 1st July 1989 and feared a reunified Germany, insisting on the term "unification".
A few weeks later, he defended his view in front of the European Parliament, as President of the Council. Then, step by step, Mitterrand and Kohl came to develope a close political relationship that found its roots in the 1984 World War I commemoration where the two leaders were famously pictured holding hands.
Jacques Delors, who was President of the European Commission since 1985, proposed Helmut Kohl to share the economic burden of German reunification but the German Chancellor refused, arguing that it would be negatively perceived by other countries member of the European and Economic Community (EEC).
Thus, only regional development policies financed in the EU budget were extended to cover the former East German states.
The Maastricht Treaty, which was discussed at that time in Brussels "consolidated the relation" between the two countries, Jouyet said. Indeed, the Economic and Monetary Union established by the Treaty in 1992 and which led to the single currency is commonly portrayed as a deal between Mitterrand and Kohl. Under the agreement, the French President accepted German reunification while German Chancellor abandoned his strong currency, the Deutsch Mark.
"The reunification and the Wall collapse also led to European Union enlargement," Jouyet said. "The Wall collapse has been the core of EU-27," he underlined. According to the former EU minister, "the Franco-German relation is key to make [central European] countries part of a stabilised union" as "France and Germany are the main contributors to the EU."
"Enlargement will continue and that is a good thing," Jouyet said, admitting that "most people in France don’t agree with me on this topic."
