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France and Germany have recently experienced common approaches when confronted to regional crisis in the Middle East. Recent German activism suggests a closer Franco-German cooperation in order to develop solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in the framework of the European Union. This hypothesis needs to be assessed by taking into consideration the respective relationship of both states with the protagonists of the conflict. Far from being complementary, the French and German stances thus appear rather incompatible in practice. Furthermore, institutional constraints make it difficult to elaborate new positions for the enlarged Union. In this context, collaboration with other key states of the Union is required to reach institutional efficiency.Isabel Schäfer is Research Fellow at the Centre d’études politiques sur le Moyen-Orient of the Freie Universität of Berlin; she studies European policies in the Mediterranean and the Near East.

Dorothée Schmid is Associated Research Fellow, EuroMeSCo network of European and political in the Mediterranean.