Hurdles to Franco-German bargain on euro zone are high

BERLIN: Midway through their news conference in Berlin last month, French President Emmanuel Macron turned to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and laid out a quid pro quo on strengthening Europe’s single currency project.

“Everyone has a job to do,” Macron said.

“I have to press ahead with reforms that are necessary for our country and for restoring trust between France and Germany. And the chancellor must make a convincing case to her public, to her political class.”

Macron campaigned on a promise to “rebuild” Europe through deeper integration of the euro zone, the 19- nation currency zone which ranks as one of the EU’s biggest achievements but which critics say is still work in progress 18 years after its launch.

He seems determined to fulfill his side of the bargain.

Polls suggest his new party, la Republique en Marche, could win an absolute majority in parliamentary elections this month. That would make it easier for him to deliver on his plans to reform the French economy.

But in Berlin, questions remain about whether Merkel will embrace the leap in European integration that Macron wants.

That would mean taking on sceptics in her party who remain reluctant to compromise with the new president of France, a country they worry has a vision of a Europe in which Germany has to pay for the failure of others to knock their economies into shape. — Reuters