What role did German-French cooperation play in the European integration process?

THE ROLE THE GERMAN-FRENCH COOPERATION PLAYED IN THE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROCESS
Name
Course
Institution
Date of Submission
The Role the German-French cooperation played in the European integration process
Introduction
German’s strong commitment to Europe is strongly evident in the country’s foreign policy foundation. It is this dedication and the close ties with France that generally led to European Unifications. German and France contributed greatly to this process because their convincing reconciliation formed the basis of a future European community and this acted as motivating factors for other European member states to think of a European amalgamation.
Even though these two powerful states in Europe sacrificed a lot to make sure that this brain child of a European integration worked, this bilateral cooperation within the European community was looked at with criticism. Most believed that this cooperation was geared towards practicing hegemony on other small member states or rather geared towards their national interests. Henceforth, this essay is going to look at the role the German-French "engine" played in European integration and analyze their interest for this sacrifice and finally offer a verdict on whether this was a hegemonic strategy or not.
The Treaty of Maastricht and the start of European Integration
The Month of December 1991 might be considered an important moment for the history of the European Union for it saw the coming together of strong European heads of states who gave their approval to the Treaty of the European Union. This meeting was regarded a monumental direction in a unified Economic and political Europe. However, this meeting seemed to only have the agenda of achieving full monetary union and nothing more (Baun, 1996).
Also, at the beginning of the Maastricht treaty, many European countries objected to it as they perceived it to pose threats to their interested and survival within the International system for it perceived as a hegemonic strategy of stronger states to control the affairs of the smaller states within Europe. Nevertheless, despites such opposition and the economic stagnation that threatened to thwart this potential initiative, the treaty was enacted on 1st November 1993 and from then, it became known as the European Union (Baun, 1996). Though most scholars perceive the Maastricht Treaty as a strategy of German to mend itself after Cold War to unify, the treaty had an influence to the economic and institutional development of Europe.
The importance of the German-French cooperation became an outstanding feature in the first attempt to establish a monetary union, when German Chancellor at that time, Helmut Schmidt, and French President V. Giscard d’Estaing, presented a joint proposal on monetary cooperation to the European community summit in April 1978, thereby formalizing the establishment of the European Monetary System ( EMS) (...