Macron pledges EU reform
But Angela Merkel will give the new president short shrift if he uses his first visit to ask for funds
EMMANUEL MACRON promised to reform Europe and reconcile a divided France as he was sworn in as the country’s youngest ever president.
Mr Macron, 39, will fly to Germany today to try to persuade Angela Merkel to agree to a joint eurozone budget.
At his inauguration ceremony in the Elysée Palace yesterday, Mr Macron said: “The division and fractures in our society must be overcome.
“I know that the French expect much from me. They’re right to. The world and Europe need France more than ever.”
Mr Macron will use his Berlin trip to ram home the message that the EU is resilient despite Brexit and a spate of financial and migration crises that have boosted the far-right. While welcoming his “spectacular” victory against the far-right Eurosceptic Marine Le Pen, Mrs Merkel has made it clear Germany will not bail France out by mutualising debt via eurobonds.
EMMANUEL MACRON will today use his first international trip to try to persuade Germany to build a common eurozone budget, a day after being sworn in as France’s youngest ever president.
However, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has made it clear that the politician being hailed as the potential saviour of the European project can expect short shrift if he asks Germany to fork out national funds to boost a French recovery.
Mr Macron, a 39-year old Europhile who used his inaugural address to promise to “reform and relaunch” Europe, was sworn in during a pompfilled inauguration at the Elysée Palace, joined by his wife Brigitte Trogneux, family and 300 dignitaries.
Promising to restore flagging French self-confidence, he repeatedly underlined the importance of France’s place in the European Union “which protects us and enables us to project our values in the world”.
However, he added, the 28-member bloc needed to be “reformed and relaunched.”
“We will need a more efficient, democratic and political Europe, because it is the instrument of our power and sovereignty,” he insisted in a speech in the Elysée’s gilded Salle des fêtes.
The centrist ex-economy minister and investment banker swept to victory on May 7 promising to kick-start the European project while reforming France after beating the far-right’s Marine Le Pen, who wanted to ditch the euro and threatened to pull France out of the EU.
Deeply relieved, as were her pro-eu colleagues, Mrs Merkel instantly hailed his election as “spectacular” and a “victory for a strong, united Europe”.
However, beneath the smiles, experts have warned talks could swiftly founder between the leaders of Europe’s two “motor” economies if Germany feels it is being asked to fork out for France, notably via eurozone bonds.
Last week Mrs Merkel appeared to rule this idea out, and also warned that Germany could do nothing about reducing its persistently high trade surplus, despite French calls to help Europe’s economic laggards by importing more.
However, sources close to Mr Macron yesterday insisted he would not press for joint eurozone bonds to fund the budget. “Our priority is a budget for the eurozone, which can have different forms of financing,” an unnamed source in the Macron camp told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper.
Sylvie Goulard, a key Macron adviser who has been tipped to be prime minister, added: “One should not criticise Emmanuel Macron for points that are not in his programme. He never spoke out at any time in the election campaign for eurobonds.
“I consider eurobonds a possible tool to finance future EU joint projects on favourable terms. But they are not meant to shift a state’s existing debts on to the shoulders of the other Europeans. This is rightly rejected in Germany,” she added
Mrs Merkel is thought to be keen to forge a personal alliance with the new French president. But she is facing elections of her own in September which will limit what she can offer.
Joint eurobonds are deeply unpopular in Germany, where they are seen as a means to force the country to pay the debts of other member states, and the idea has already seen outspoken criticism of Mr Macron from senior members of Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrat party (CDU).
However, Mrs Merkel’s conservatives have come under domestic fire for their rigid stance on fiscal policy towards France. Sigmar Gabriel, the German foreign minister and a leading member of the centre-left Social Democrats, warned: “We must stop confronting the French constantly with the raised index finger, blocking everything and letting them beg, so to speak, for every inch of flexibility in politics.”
The German government must do more to support growth and counter growing Euroscepticism, he warned last week. “We must stop pretending as if we were the packhorse of the European Union,” Mr Gabriel said.
“We’re the big winners in fiscal and economic terms, we’re the world’s exports champion because they all are buying our products.”
Focusing on the joint eurozone budget, the Macron team was cited as saying it could be funded from several sources, including a new EU investment fund. Another idea expected to be mooted is the creation of a eurozone parliament.
Mr Macron is keen to bolster unity within the EU to strengthen its hand in Brexit talks with Britain.
Michel Barnier, the Frenchman leading EU talks with Britain on Brexit, was gushing yesterday about Mr Macron’s arrival, tweeting: “Good luck Emmanuel Macron in writing a new page for our republic. And vive European France!”