Europe E3 re-emerges as economic and political powerhouse

GERMAN Chancellor Friedrich Merz makes his first official visit to the United Kingdom on Thursday (Jul 17) to sign a landmark bilateral friendship deal. The agreement confirms not only warmer economic and political ties between London and Berlin, but also the post-Brexit re-emergence of the longstanding, so-called E3 group which includes France too.

For much of the period since the UK’s 2016 referendum on its European Union membership, relations between these top three European economies have been chilly. The ardently pro-Brussels French President Emmanuel Macron and his various German counterparts, including former chancellor Angela Merkel, still believe Brexit to be an act of political vandalism to the continent.

So much so in fact that Poland, the largest economy in Central and Eastern Europe, has increasingly been perceived as a challenger for the third slot in Europe’s post-Brexit E3 group. This Paris-Berlin-Warsaw trilateral relationship is sometimes called the Weimar Triangle.