Merkel, Macron trying to work out common position on eurozone reform at Berlin meeting

19 Apr, 2018 07:16 / Updated 6 years ago

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting President Emmanuel Macron in Berlin on Thursday to try to work out a common position on reforming the eurozone. Merkel is under pressure from her conservative bloc in parliament not to agree to any reforms that result in German taxpayers funding what they see as profligate eurozone peers, Reuters reported. The French president’s vision includes turning Europe’s existing bailout fund into a European Monetary Fund (EMF), to act as a buffer in any future financial crisis for the bloc. Macron has also suggested that the eurozone should have its own finance minister, and floated the idea of a budget for the currency bloc worth hundreds of billions of euros.