Merkel: British EU immigration cap would have price

The new French president said he wanted a “trustful” relationship with Germany, not a “relationship of opposition and blackmail”, and that they would be a “frank, direct and constructive partner”.

New French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel did their best on Monday to restore the image of a Franco-German engine to re-launch the European project.

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a media conference in Berlin, Germany, Monday, May 15, 2017.

On Tuesday, he and Philippe had been expected to finalize and announce a government which Macron says will bridge France’s entrenched left-right divide and breathe new life into the country’s jaded political landscape.

After his meeting with Merkel, Macron stressed that he was not in favour of eurobonds – loans underwritten by all members of the eurozone, which some conservative German politicians have described as a vision of “hell” for their voters. “We agreed that we want to develop a road map for the European Union’s medium-term perspectives”, she said in a joint news conference with Macron. “They didn’t stop, but they started today”.

Largely unknown to the wider public three years ago, Macron enjoyed a meteoric rise to the presidency, beating Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front on May 7 after a long campaign exposed deep splits over France’s role in Europe.

And she insisted that the European Union would value the views of Remain voters when Brexit negotiations finally get under way. Macron insisted that the European Union should do more to protect itself against dumping.

Merkel, quoting German writer Hermann Hesse, said that “a magic dwells in each beginning”.

“If you speak to the Portuguese, the Spanish, the Irish, they all think that France has to do its bit now, like they had to”, said Dempsey, who has written a biography of Merkel.

“That’s not malice”, she said.

His appointment was seen as a strategic move by Macron, who is trying to woo modernisers of all stripes to his new centrist party, the République en Marche (Republic on the Move, REM), having already won over dozens of moderate Socialist MPs.

Some of the reforms Macron has floated include the creation of a finance minister for the eurozone, a shared budget and EU-wide social insurance.

Macron’s staff had initially said the government would be named late Tuesday but the presidential palace now says in a statement the announcement will come Wednesday afternoon.

With respect to the EU’s free movement of services, capital, goods and labor, “Macron looks at it with the same point of view, so we have somebody on our side”, Fuchs said.

“Currently, the 250,000 pets, cats and dogs that travel from Britain to the continent or the other way around each year are managed within an European Union framework”, she said.

Macron sought to bat away German fears on debt, saying he was opposed to mutualising “old debt” between eurozone countries.

She said the French and German governments would hold a meeting on key issues in July. What the eurozone needs is an investment policy.