Due to the protracted formation of a government in berlin, there will be no franco-german agreement on EU reform in march as planned, according to a "spiegel" report.
The original intention was expressed by chancellor angela merkel and france's president emmanuel macron at the last eu summit in december.
"The deal is off," the news magazine quoted an eu official as saying of the next summit on 22./23. Marz prepared. "There is simply nothing to defend."The german side had signaled this to the eu council, citing the long duration of the coalition talks as the reason. However, this had already been foreseeable when the time target was announced in december.
Merkel announced in mid-december that germany and france would reach an agreement by march on the future of economic and monetary union. With macron, she had "talked about bringing our positions together here by march," merkel said at the time in brussel. Among other things, macron had brought up the idea of a european finance minister and a separate budget for the 19 euro states.
Despite the delay, brussels officials still expect EU leaders to sign off on the reforms at the next summit in june. This was also announced at the december summit: "we will be one stage further along by march and will really be able to present results by june," chancellor merkel had said in brussel. Government spokesman steffen seibert told the "spiegel" that work on the reform plans was "intensified in close partnership with france" after the new government was formed.
But green european deputy sven giegold called the delay "an irresponsible failure of the federal government". This is "incendiary campaign support" for marine le pen, leader of the far-right front national in france. "We need more stability and solidarity in the euro zone".