Paris and Berlin propose a 500 billion euro plan to get Europe out of the crisis

Text by: RFI Follow

We hadn't seen them together since the start of the coronavirus crisis. Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron held a videoconference this Monday, May 18 during which they proposed that the European recovery plan, currently in preparation in Brussels, be endowed with 500 billion euros in budgetary expenditure for the countries of the bloc most affected by the coronavirus epidemic, which has almost paralyzed economic activity on the continent. This proposal marks a turning point in Germany's position.

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This joint initiative, which has yet to be endorsed by the European Commission and all of the Twenty-Seven, constitutes a "major step" and a "change in philosophy", said Emmanuel Macron during a press conference at the outcome of a videoconference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"  For the first time, what we are proposing together, Germany and France, is to decide all together to go and raise a common debt on the markets and to use this 500 billion euros, debt which will be intended to be reimbursed,
to provide funding that will be marked in priority on the most affected sectors and for the most affected regions and therefore to accept real transfers, a real common strategy  , "underlined Emmanuel Macron.

"These 500 billion will not be reimbursed by the beneficiaries of those who use this money, they can either be reimbursed by the member states by a distribution key which depends on your weight in the budget, by
contributions that we will be called upon to decide then or by other mechanisms, ”said the French president.

The Franco-German duo comes back on track

It is spectacular, firstly because all the previous European video advice had ended badly, Paris had even sided with the countries of the South, without consulting Berlin, an extremely rare event. Then, because this time not only have they started working together again and making proposals for Europe, but also and above all what they have just presented, this is an unprecedented step forward. Germany has so far been openly opposed to the idea of ​​issuing a joint debt, also known as "coronabonds", defended forcefully in recent weeks by Paris and Rome in the name of European solidarity .

So, of course, we will have to convince the other countries, and in particular the so-called "frugal" alliance - the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries - and this will certainly require a physical summit. Now it's the European Commission's turn to make this plan a reality: the conditions of debt, its duration.

A German taboo has just jumped

Angela Merkel has just taken a major step. After the end of the rule of 3% maximum deficit in the EU, it is a second taboo and particularly a German taboo which has just jumped.

It was excluded in March, it is possible today. German opinion is moving. Last April, for example, an editorial in the German weekly Der Spiegel judged, in very harsh words, the refusal of Berlin of an instrument of common debt: "  selfishness, obstinacy and cowardice  " could we read under the pen of editor-in-chief.

"  How much will this plan cost Germany?  However, asked a German journalist to Angela Merkel. "  Is this the right question ? Replied the Chancellor, who added: " Germany will do well if Europe goes well  ". For what must be her last mandate, Angela Merkel is setting herself - and this is a first - on the initiative of an unprecedented step forward, a leap forward towards a more integrated Europe.

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• France
• Emmanuel Macron
• Germany
• Angela Merkel
• European Union