Merkel, Macron search for reforms to halt EU ‘disintegration’

Populists gaining ground amid division over migrants

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday to hammer out reforms that can stop the “disintegration” of the European Union, torn by populist forces and deep discord over immigration.

The two leaders of Europe’s biggest economies will seek to thrash out a compromise between Macron’s bold vision for sweeping EU change and Germany’s stance that is more cautious, especially when it comes to finance.

Merkel and Macron have both stressed that, as US President Donald Trump openly challenges the EU with a trade war and over security and climate policy, the bloc must learn to stand its ground on the world stage.

The ministerial retreat at Meseberg castle near Berlin aims to agree a joint FrancoGerman stance ahead of a key June 28-29 summit on the EU’s post-Brexit future, at a time when populists and eurosceptics are rapidly gaining ground.

As outspoken pro-Europeans, Merkel and Macron both face harsh opposition from nationalist and right-wing populist forces at home, and in the governments of Italy, Austria and several eastern European countries.

Ahead of the meeting, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire warned that “Europe is in a process of disintegration. We see states that are turning inward, trying to find national solutions to problems that require European solutions.

“It is essential to propose a new European project on immigration, on economic issues, on financial issues to consolidate Europe in a world where you have the United States on one side, China on the other and we are trapped in the middle.”

The question of how many migrants the bloc can absorb came back to the fore strongly when last week Italy and Malta both turned back a rescue vessel carrying 630 refugees, which was eventually accepted by Spain.

The move sparked a clash between France and Italy as immigration also triggered a domestic crisis for Merkel, a leader already weakened by her decision in 2015 to keep open German borders to a mass influx of more than one million refugees.

Merkel now faces a dangerous mutiny from her hardline Bavarian Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who has vowed to defy her and order police to shut German borders to most asylum seekers by early July absent an EU compound accord.

Merkel, arguing that the issue must be resolved at the EU level, has pledged to reach deals with transit and arrival countries in the narrow two-week window ending with the Brussels summit.

“Turning away migrants at our borders at the heart of Europe will lead to negative domino effects that could hurt Germany and put into question European unity,” she has warned.