Plans to introduce a single Eurozone budget and emergency funding were agreed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on June 19. The two also agreed to reduce the refugee flow to Europe.
During their meeting at Meseberg castle, outside Berlin, Merkel and Macron discussed reworking the Eurozone and how to find a European solution to prevent another influx of migrants.
As reported by Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster, the two leaders decided that the EU should set up a single eurozone budget to boost investment and promote economic convergence among all 19 member states.
The new budget will be put in place by 2021, but details on how it will be financed still need to be worked out.
“We are working to make sure that the eurozone budget will be used to strengthen investment, also with the aim of strengthening convergence within the eurozone,” said Merkel.
Macron added that the budget will be a “real budget with annual revenues and spending”.
The current European Stability Mechanism (ESM), introduced in 2012 to deal with the eurozone crisis, will be turned into a European monetary fund, which can offer loans to struggling EU countries, and better insulate the single currency from future crises.
Merkel said that a move towards a banking union can only happen after individual banking risks have been reduced.
On migration, the two leaders said they would push for greater solidarity among EU states to ensure a European response to the refugee influx. Both Merkel and Macron restated their belief that the migrant flow to Europe needs to be reduced.
In a separate report, Bloomberg reported that France and Germany still need to get other governments on board with the euro-area plan. Macron suggested the proposal will be presented to other partners with the goal of working out specifics this year that would take effect by 2021.
On the backstop for the resolution fund, the conclusions to the meeting said “its entry into force should be earlier than 2024.”
