Posts

60th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty – GFA celebrates 60 years of German-French relations

Exactly 60 years ago, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and French President Charles De Gaulle signed the Treaty of Friendship in the Élysée Palace. With this agreement, the two neighbors paved the way for a prosperous common future in the heart of Europe after long enmity and wars.

Today, the current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron, as well as other politicians and invited guests, met at the Sorbonne University to celebrate this anniversary.

The GFA also celebrates this day, which makes its mission possible, namely to promote and actively shape bilateral research, higher education and industrial relations in the Industry of the Future.

Macron stressed today that Germany and France “cleared the path to reconciliation,” and must therefore “become pioneers to relaunch Europe.” (According to: https://www.dw.com/en/scholz-and-macron-celebrate-60-years-of-elysee-treaty/a-64480184)

It was the same spirit that helped founding the GFA in 2015, when Institut Mines-Télécom (IMT) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) reacted to the idea of President Macron and former Chancellor Angela Merkel to create a French-German research and innovation network accompanying the digitalization of industry processes focusing on AI, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing and network cooperation. Since then, the GFA helped develop a total of 30 French-German research projects, directly involving more than 175 researchers, PhD students and engineers as well as more than 30 industrial partners.

The GFA is at the forefront of innovation and will continue it’s mission with a year full of bilateral events, calls-for-projects and other networking activities to support bringing Germany, France and Europe to the cutting edge in the Industry of the Future.

We thank all researchers, companies, network partners and the many people who have helped us in our mission so far and will continue to support us in the future!