Golden boy Macron pushes Brussels agenda: EU ‘can’t move on’ without France and Germany

Mr Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have a close relationship, although cracks have begun to show in recent weeks as Germany is still without a government.

But the French President threw his support behind Germany again this week as he insisted the European Union would not be able to progress without the support of the two major powers.

He said: “There is a structural relationship between France and Germany,” Macron said, “when France and Germany don’t agree, Europe we can’t move forward, but that relationship is not exclusive. 

‘Ties with Italy have a different history, cultural ties, a special and specific friendship. It does not compete and it is not inferior, but perfectly complementary to the Franco-German relationship.

“The relationship is strong at all levels and we wanted to give it a new form with the Treaty of the Quirinale”.

Mr Macron was speaking in Rome following a two-day summit with his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni, who is facing the very real prospect of an election defeat in March.

And in a show of support for Italy’s Prime Minister, Mr Macron gushed about how pleased he was the pair were working together. 

The French leader said: “I want to stress how happy I have been to work with Paolo Gentiloni in recent months. 

“His efforts in Italy and Europe have made it possible to create a new dynamic.”

Macron also paid tribute to Italy’s work on migrants: “Italy has done an excellent job in 2017, to which I pay tribute, to reduce the destabilisation caused by the migration phenomenon”.

Italy is set to head to the polls on March 4, and Mr Gentiloni’s ruling Democratic Party (PD) is facing an uphill struggle against the populist 5-Star Movement (M5S).

Mr Macron’s comments today come after he welcomed a deal in Germany between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Social Democrat (SPD) that paves the way for a coalition government, saying its provisional terms were good for Europe.

Macron in September offered an ambitious vision for European renewal, but has had to wait since for a response from EU powerhouse Germany, with much on hold there after parliamentary elections.

The deal reached by Merkel and the SPD on Friday pledges close cooperation with France on strengthening the euro zone, in Berlin’s first substantive response to Macron’s proposals.

“We have had this morning … good news from the other side of the Rhine,” Macron told a news conference with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. “We need more Europe and from what I saw of the provisional deal it acknowledges that.”

The terms of the deal are more favourable to the European project than previous attempts for a German coalition government did at the end of last year, Macron said, adding that he was happy to find in the deal echoes of his own proposals.

However, while he welcomed the overall tone of the CDU-SPD deal, when asked about plans to turn the ESM bailout mechanism into a full-blown European Monetary Fund, which are included in the 28-page policy document agreed after all-night talks, Macron expressed some scepticism.

“We need to finalise the banking union,” Macron said, adding that the ESM might have to undergo some changes. “But I don’t think we need a new instrument to do so,” he said.

“I know what the International Monetary Fund is but I struggle to see what a European Monetary Fund is, if not potentially bringing some confusion between several instruments …. whose objectives are different,” he said, adding that that he was in favour of keeping the ESM as a rescue mechanism, with a separate fund to finance EU projects and a separate budgetary tool for the EU.

The German provisional deal also promises to devote “specific budget funds” to the economic stabilisation of the single currency bloc and to support “social convergence” and structural reforms, saying this could form the basis of a future “investment budget”.

(Additional reporting by Maria Ortega)