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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government rejected French President Emmanuel Macron's call for a joint borrowing scheme ahead of a summit of EU leaders on Thursday.
In an interview with six European media outlets published on Tuesday, Macron urged Europe to launch a plan for new joint borrowing, or eurobonds, to boost investment in strategic sectors, presenting it as an economic necessity if the continent wants to keep pace with the US and China.
Berlin strongly rejected the plan just hours after the interview was published, marking the latest clash between Macron and Merz over everything from trade to how to treat US President Donald Trump.
“ We think that, given the agenda [at the EU leaders’ summit], this distracts a bit from what is really at stake, which is that we have a productivity problem. It is true that we need more investment. But to be honest, this belongs in the context of the Multiannual Financial Framework,” a senior German government official, who is close to the chancellor and was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said on Tuesday.
Berlin's rejection of Macron's proposal came ahead of a meeting of EU leaders at a Belgian castle focused on competitiveness, scheduled for Thursday. Although the bloc's 27 leaders are not expected to sign off on concrete outcomes, they aim to identify key priorities for a subsequent EU leaders' summit in March in Brussels.
Berlin is pushing forward three main goals: a deepening of the single market; more and faster trade deals; and a push for less bureaucracy, the official said.
On the issue of competitiveness, Merz has increasingly distanced himself from Macron, who favors more protectionist measures and an interventionist industrial policy. Instead, Merz has increasingly aligned himself with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The German government has also called for far-reaching reforms of the EU budget.
"It cannot continue as before, with two-thirds of the budget going exclusively to excessive spending in the areas of agriculture and cohesion. We hope that the member states that are now asking for new funds will also participate in these reform efforts. It cannot be that people ask for more money but then do not implement the reforms. The European debt overhang does not come without a cost ," the official said.
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