Hosting Merkel, Macron gets chance to push EU reforms
Paris, (MILLAT ONLINE):Having finally secured her fourth term as Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel heads to France on Friday for talks with President Emmanuel Macron, who is eager to push ahead with overhauls of EU institutions.
Macron has called for a major reform drive to reinvigorate the European Union at a time of rising populist challenges, with proposals that include a common eurozone finance minister and budget.
The two leaders must also contend with spiralling tensions with Moscow, which Britain and its allies have blamed for a poison attack on a former Russian double agent in southwest England.
With Britain and Russia expelling diplomats over the allegations, Merkel’s return to the helm of the EU heavyweight comes not a moment too soon.
She had been hamstrung for nearly six months by tortuous talks form a coalition government, depriving Macron of a key pillar of support for his push to bolster EU unity.
“It’s certainly a day Macron has long been waiting for,” said Sebastien Maillard of the Jacques Delors Institute.
“There’s a shared sense of urgency” on the part of both leaders ahead of European Parliament elections next year, which could give eurosceptic parties a greater foothold, Maillard said.
The surprisingly strong showings by far-right and anti-establishment parties in Italy’s elections this month have only reinforced fears that traditional parties are failing to meet voters’ demands.
“We’ve been buffeted, but audacity is our response” for getting deeper EU integration back on track, Macron said in September when laying out his reform plans for the bloc.
His other ideas for a post-Brexit shake-up are to create a parliament for the 19-member eurozone and a European “rapid reaction force” to work with national armies.