One day after he rejected EU “dictates” on economic policy, French leader Francois Hollande and Germany’s Angela Merkel have called for the creation of a full-time euro “President.”<\/p>\n
The idea came in a joint text published on Thursday (30 May 2013) during Merkel’s visit to Paris.<\/p>\n
The paper says that “a full-time President for the Eurogroup of finance ministers relying on wider resources” should be created after the EU elections in 2014.<\/p>\n
It calls for: more frequent eurozone summits; a “specific fund for the euro area” alongside the general EU budget; and new “structures” in the European Parliament to oversee euro-level economic governance.<\/p>\n
It says eurozone countries should sign binding contracts with EU institutions on economic reform.<\/p>\n
It also makes a number of concessions to France.<\/p>\n
It says that a new resolution mechanism for failed banks “should be established on the basis of the current [EU] treaties.”<\/p>\n
It calls for \u20ac6 billion of EU spending on youth unemployment in 2014 and 2015 and it says the EU should co-ordinate “minimum wage floors.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a 50-minute-long Merkel-Hollande press briefing at the Elysee palace was interrupted by a moment of hilarity.<\/p>\n
At one point, the German Chancellor said “the issues on which we are working have been discussed by [former French leader] Francois Mitterand,” before correcting herself to say: “Francois Hollande, not Francois Mitterand. Francois Hollande.”<\/p>\n
The meeting tried to make a show of good Franco-German relations.<\/p>\n
Hollande said: “Everyone says we don’t agree. Most of the time we do agree. There are nuances, but you [the media] emphasise those nuances.”<\/p>\n
Merkel’s remarks highlighted some grievances, however.<\/p>\n
Alluding to job security laws in France, she said: “We reformed our labour markets \u2026 We put flexibility into labour law. Is it better for a young person to have a job with a certain flexibility? Or no job at all?”<\/p>\n
She also said the European Commission’s recent decision to give France more time to cut its deficit comes with strings attached: “It is tied to the fact that reforms will be undertaken \u2026 I cannot put in place a system of solidarity in Europe and then everyone does their own budgets.”<\/p>\n
Just one day before the Paris event, Hollande had attacked the commission for recommending that France reforms its pensions system.<\/p>\n
He said that Brussels has no right to “dictate” economic reforms.<\/p>\n
He said on Thursday with Merkel that “nothing is taboo. All the reforms that have to be undertaken will be done.”<\/p>\n
But he added that: “The details, procedures and way of going about this are the responsibility of the government and the state, otherwise there would be no national sovereignty.”<\/p>\n
Some top people in Merkel’s CDU party were less gentle than the Chancellor.<\/p>\n
CDU deputy chairman Andreas Schockenhoff told German media that Hollande’s rejection of EU pension recommendations: “contradicts the spirit and letter of European agreements and treaties. Someone who talks like that is shaking the foundations of the EU.”<\/p>\n
CDU deputy speaker Michael Fuchs noted: “It [EU-level governance] can’t work when a big country like France says it can do what it wants.”<\/p>\n
Referring to the commission’s extra time on the French deficit, the CDU budgets spokesman, Norbert Barthle, said: “France won’t be able to bank on such indulgence again.”<\/p>\n
Hollande and Merkel on Thursday also visited the Louvre museum to see an exhibition marking 50 years of Franco-German unity.<\/p>\n
Merkel said the paintings are “very beautiful.”<\/p>\n
But the display itself has become a minor irritant.<\/p>\n
Some of the pictures – such as the Hell of Birds by Max Beckmann, which depicts a female monster doing a Nazi salute – have prompted anger in German newspapers.<\/p>\n
Die Zeit in April called the exhibition a “cultural-political scandal,” while Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said it “confirms all the cliches of the estranged, romantic, dangerous and dark neighbour.”<\/p>\n