{"id":740668,"date":"2026-02-04T00:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/740668\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T00:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:57:13","slug":"germany-seeks-closer-ties-with-italy-amid-eu-tensions-the-telegraph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/740668\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany Seeks Closer Ties With Italy Amid EU Tensions &#8211; The Telegraph"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.islamtimes.com\/en\/news\/1261970\/germany-seeks-closer-ties-with-italy-amid-eu-tensions-the-telegraph\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/n01261970-b.jpg\" alt=\"Germany Seeks Closer Ties With Italy Amid EU Tensions - The Telegraph\" title=\"Germany Seeks Closer Ties With Italy Amid EU Tensions - The Telegraph\" class=\"img-responsive\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>            Islam Times &#8211; Germany is moving to strengthen ties with Italy as tensions rise with France over EU trade policy, Emmanuel Macron\u2019s impending exit, and relations with US President Donald Trump, The Telegraph reported on Monday, citing EU diplomats.France and Germany have long been the \u201cengine\u201d of EU policymaking, but Macron is described as a \u201clame duck\u201d whose mandate ends in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBerlin needs partners it can work with. Can they work with Macron at the moment? Not really. He is leaving office soon and France is unstable. Germans hate instability,\u201d an EU diplomat said.<\/p>\n<p>German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has reportedly approached Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with proposals to restructure Europe.<\/p>\n<p>The plan envisions a \u201cmulti-speed Europe,\u201d where a core group of member states, including Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, and France, can advance policies more quickly, bypassing broader EU bureaucracy.<\/p>\n<p>Italian officials described the accord as signaling a \u201cnew center of gravity inside the EU,\u201d focusing on cooperation on defense, migration, and trade.<\/p>\n<p>France and Germany have clashed over EU governance, with Paris favoring greater borrowing and centralization, while Berlin resists due to its export-dependent economy.<\/p>\n<p>Macron\u2019s calls for the bloc to use its \u201ctrade bazooka\u201d during the Greenland dispute drew criticism from Merz, who also cited France\u2019s domestic political gridlock and inability to implement reforms.<\/p>\n<p>Economic pressures compound France\u2019s instability, with a 5.8% budget deficit in 2025 and public debt at 114% of GDP.<\/p>\n<p>High energy costs across the EU, following the phase-out of Russian oil and gas, have strained economies, contributing to Germany\u2019s economic contraction in 2023\u20132024 and a rise in bankruptcies, according to the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry.&#13;\n  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Islam Times &#8211; Germany is moving to strengthen ties with Italy as tensions rise with France over EU&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5310],"tags":[25043,5176,27616,213413,83093,66062,5483,97365,2000,299,46697,36,1824,219311,10515,41,2199,95917,1327,76853,254,49079,46,7574,8523,52499,29345,48277,219310,219309,14781,5598,50175,15822,6093,1201,1757,978,6095],"class_list":["post-740668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-amid","tag-and","tag-as","tag-citing","tag-closer","tag-diplomats","tag-donald","tag-emmanuel","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-exit","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-impending","tag-is","tag-islam","tag-italy","tag-macrons","tag-monday","tag-moving","tag-on","tag-over","tag-policy","tag-president","tag-relations","tag-reported","tag-rise","tag-seeks","tag-strengthen","tag-telegraph","tag-tensions","tag-the","tag-ties","tag-times","tag-to","tag-trade","tag-trump","tag-us","tag-with"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116009647691244461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}