MNI EXCLUSIVE: German MEPs Cautious But Hopeful on Macron Plan

--Tuesday Speech Seen as Start of Long Political Dialogue

--Free Democrats May Not Be Block On Integration Process

By Jack Duffy

     PARIS (MNI) - French President Emmanuel Macron's ambitious proposals to

forge a more integrated European Union were "courageous" but represent only the

start of a long political dialogue between Paris and Berlin, German European

Parliament members from both the left and the right told Market News

International.

     Macron's plea on Tuesday for common European approaches to defence and

migration as well as for a single Eurozone budget and finance minister were

greeted cautiously in Germany, but with many saying the proposals formed the

basis of a necessary debate. 

     "I think the speech was extremely courageous," Andreas Schwab, a

centre-right Christian Democratic Union MEP from the southwest Germany told MNI

in an interview. "It was a substantive proposal by the French president on

sharing sovereignty," he said. 

     "We have always said if the French are ready to share more sovereignty we

are ready to take more risk," Schwab said. "If you take all of Macron's

proposals together my take is that he is ready to go for a more general pooling

of sovereignty." 

     Asked whether a new German government under Chancellor Angela Merkel that

includes the eurosceptic Free Democrats would likely approve of any of Macron's

ideas, Schwab said he believed there was a way forward.

     "There is nothing concrete yet in the details of the euro budget, the

finance minister or European Monetary Fund, but there are many possible ways to

make these ideas acceptable for Berlin and for Paris," he said. 

     Macron went out of his way in Tuesday's speech to appeal to German

sentiment, saying a common Eurozone budget budget "can only be undertaken with

greater responsibility which starts with respect for the rules and

implementation of indispensable reforms." He said the goal of tighter

integration "was not to mutualise past debts."  

     On the other side of the political divide, the centre-left Social Democrat

MEP Udo Bullmann called Macron's speech "a necessary and helpful provocation."  

     Bullmann, in an interview with MNI, said the European policies of Merkel

and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble represented a "a permanent standstill"

and needed to be shaken up. 

     "For the last 10 years they have said there is a problem but we reject all

the proposed solutions. The house is burning but you are not allowed to use any

exit," Bullmann said. "Now we are in a situation where they have to react and I

am looking forward to it."  

     However, it appears that a change is already ahead, with the shake-up hoped

for by Bullman underway, as Schaeuble is set to leave the finance ministry and

take on the role of President of the Bundestag.

     That may not lead in a direction Bullman would wish for, as it is widely

expected that Free Democrat leader Christian Lindner, more hard-line on European

issues, could take the finance minister post as a price of coalition with the

ruling CDU/CSU.

     Despite that, Bullmann said that Macron's speech opens the door to a debate

that has long been taboo in Germany: how to equalize conditions in the EU's

richer and poorer nations.

     "If this intervention by Macron leads to breakage of this taboo in public

debate it would be very helpful," he said.  

--MNI Paris Bureau; tel: +33 1-42-71-55-41; email: jack.duffy@marketnews.com

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

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