Emboldened Macron pushes case for EU reform
French president, adorned with Charlemagne medal, wins praise from Merkel but no concrete promises
‘We chose to build peace and stability in the Middle East. Others have decided not to respect their own word’
PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron yesterday urged Germany to drop its “fetish for budget and trade surpluses” amid foot-dragging from Angela Merkel over his reform plans for Europe.
Two days after Donald Trump pulled America out of the Iran nuclear deal, the French leader said the time was ripe for strengthening “European sovereignty”. He issued the plea after receiving the Charlemagne Prize for his “contagious enthusiasm” for strengthening EU cohesion and integration.
His words earned the praise of Mrs Merkel at a prize-giving ceremony in Aachen, residence of Charlemagne, dubbed “the father of Europe” for uniting much of western Europe in the ninth century.
“With Emmanuel Macron, a dynamic young politician has entered the European stage, for whom European integration and the common currency are a clear course,” Mrs Merkel said.
However, hamstrung by six months of negotiations over forming a new coalition government, Mrs Merkel has shown little enthusiasm for the French president’s call for a common finance minister or budget. But Mr Macron insisted: “France has changed. It is no longer the same, and that is the choice of the French people.” He said he was prepared to challenge Gallic resistance to changing EU treaties and to impose reform, but “in Germany, there cannot be a perpetual fetish for budget and trade surpluses, because they are always achieved at the expense of others. Let us not be afraid now of getting over our own taboos, our own habits,” he said. In a speech to an audience including leaders from Lithuania, Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Ukraine, Mr Macron also called on Europe to defend the global multilateral order.
“We made the choice to build peace and stability in the Middle East,” he said in a nod to the involvement of France, Germany and Britain in the Iran deal. “Other powers, just as sovereign as us, have decided not to respect their own word,” he added.
Mrs Merkel acknowledged that “it is no longer the case that the United States of America will simply protect us – Europe must take its fate in its own hands”. With America at odds with Europe in a string of areas, from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord to threats of punitive trade tariffs, Mr Macron said Europe stood at a “historic moment”.
The two leaders have promised to agree a common map for the future of the EU by the time of a summit in Brussels next month. “We need to do everything to make Europe stronger, more united, more sovereign, more democratic,” stressed Mr Macron.
Critics said Mr Macron had not yet done enough to warrant the Charlemagne Prize, whose recipients include Winston Churchill and Tony Blair.
Despite speeches backing European reform in Athens, the Sorbonne in Paris and to the European Parliament, the French president has failed to give much momentum to a joint military “rapid reaction force” or an EU tax on the revenues of technology giants.
But Mr Macron said Europe needed to be more ambitious. “That’s why I believe in a stronger eurozone, more deeply integrated, with its own budget allowing for investments and convergence,” he said.
Writing in Der Spiegel, a weekly German news magazine, Michael Sauga commented: “Instead of countering with her own ideas, Merkel is buying time and, by doing so, creating the risk that a historic opportunity will be missed – that of a joint relaunch of the currency union.”
Mr Macron’s calls for a more integrated Europe come amid a populist, nationalist backlash in a string of EU countries from Hungary to Italy, as well as Britain.