France and Germany once presented themselves as guardians of Europe’s open economic order. Now, the continent’s two most influential powers appear increasingly eager to turn trade protectionism into a weapon.

That is not merely a policy adjustment. It is a profound contradiction.

According to media reports, France and Germany have submitted an informal paper to the European Commission calling for stronger EU trade-defense instruments. The proposal reportedly seeks to give Brussels new powers to restrict or even revoke access to the EU single market for countries accused of engaging in “systemic market-distorting practices.” It also proposes mechanisms designed to reduce European companies’ dependence on single sources for certain critical supplies.

The document may avoid naming China, but there is little mystery about the strategic direction.

France and Germany-the European Union’s traditional “twin engines”-are pushing Brussels toward a more protectionist trade policy at precisely the moment when Europe claims to be defending multilateralism, rules-based commerce and economic openness.

The contradiction is difficult to ignore.

For more than half a century, European prosperity has been deeply connected to free trade and economic integration. Europe built customs arrangements, created the single market and became one of the principal architects of the postwar multilateral trading system. Open markets allowed European manufacturers to access global consumers, while European consumers benefited from global supply chains, competitive prices and imported goods.

The European model was never based on economic isolation.

Yet France and Germany now appear willing to weaken that very principle when it becomes politically convenient.

In 2025, the European Union recorded a €128 billion surplus in trade in goods. Even German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged as recently as June that Europe benefits more than any other continent from open and fair global trade.

That statement should not be forgotten merely because the political wind has changed.

If........

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