Collective interests of EU come before those of its members
Editor's note: French President Emmanuel Macron did not attend the Munich Security Conference on Feb 15-17. Huang Ying, a researcher in German studies at the Shanghai-based Tongji University, comments in an article for Guancha.cn:
It is noteworthy the Elysee Palace stressed that Macron's absence from the gathering was not related to the dispute in the European Union over Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline that is to be built from Russia to Germany at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
Macron's absence was more conspicuous, as he and his German counterpart Angela Merkel had just signed the Treaty on Franco-German Cooperation and Integration on Jan 22. Many people have compared the new treaty to the Elysee Treaty the two neighbors signed on the same day in 1963, which as a treaty of friendship laid the foundation for the forming of a France-Germany axis and Europe's rise.