Merkel, Macron meet to plot eurozone reform road map
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The leaders of Germany and France meet on Thursday to try to work out a common position on reforming the eurozone, a sensitive issue that is testing the new government in Berlin just a month after it took office. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who hosts PresidentMerkel, Macron meet to plot eurozone reform road map
The leaders of Germany and France meet on Thursday to try to work out a common position on reforming the eurozone, a sensitive issue that is testing the new government in Berlin just a month after it took office. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who hosts President Emmanuel Macron for the working meeting, is under pressure from her conservative bloc in parliament not to agree to any reforms that result in German taxpayers funding what they see as profligate eurozone peers. Macron's vision includes turning Europe's existing bailout fund into a European Monetary Fund (EMF), to act as a buffer in any future financial crisis in the bloc. He has also suggested the eurozone have its own finance minister and, at one point, floated the idea of a budget for the currency bloc worth hundreds of billions of euros. «We have lots of institutions, why another one?» asked Ralph Brinkhaus, deputy leader of Merkel's conservative bloc in parliament and a budget expert. «And on the eurozone budget, why should the eurozone, in addition to the European Union, have an extra budget?» he told broadcaster ARD. «Why something else again?» At a meeting with conservative lawmakers on Tuesday, Merkel trod a... Read more