Merkel and Macron will ‘speak with one voice’ to bolster EU

and

ANGELA MERKEL and Emmanuel Macron will meet today to bolster their alliance and promote European unity as fallout from the Brexit deal continues.

The German chancellor and French president are understood to have made a breakthrough on a new budget for the eurozone ahead of the meeting in Berlin, where Mr Macron will address the country’s Parliament.

The Franco-German budget proposals, which will be presented to European finance ministers tomorrow, are the latest in a series of joint actions, coming just days after Mrs Merkel backed Mr Macron’s calls for the creation of an EU army.

But as the leaders go out of their way to demonstrate their unity and common purpose, the EU is said to be reluctant to consider any major renegotiation of the text of the UK’s withdrawal agreement that is causing chaos in Westminster. It is understood heads of state and government of the remaining 27 member states will press on with an emergency Brussels summit to back the Brexit deal on Nov 25 even if Theresa May is toppled.

“Mrs May will be invited,” a diplomat told The Sunday Telegraph, “But even if something explosive happens and she can’t come, it will go ahead regardless.”

At a meeting on Friday, EU-27 ambassadors discussed how fragile the political situation was in London and resolved to do their best to not “rock the boat”, one diplomat said. The summit is the moment for the EU to endorse the deal its negotiators struck with Britain, so holding it without the UK makes little technical difference to the Brexit process.

But convening a European Council without a British Prime Minister would send the message that Brexit and Article 50 will not stop.

“It is meant to be a signal to London that Brussels is moving forward with the ratification,” one EU diplomat said.

The emergency summit will kickstart the national ratification process in some EU countries as well as in Westminster, setting in train a process that will culminate with a vote in the European Parliament in February and finally Brexit Day on March 29 2019.

Macron and Merkel are displaying “the will to speak with one voice”, said Hélène Miard-Delacroix, a Germany expert at the Paris-Sorbonne University. The two countries have agreed to set up a new joint parliamentary assembly, consisting of about 50 MPs from each side, which would meet at least twice a year.