France and Germany put aside bilateral tensions on Tuesday to call for an overha...
BRUSSELS - France and Germany put aside bilateral tensions on Tuesday to call for an overhaul of the EU, which has been buffeted over the past decade by a euro zone debt crisis, an influx of migrants and refugees, rising eurosceptic populism and Brexit.
Paris and Berlin, long seen as the axis of the continent’s post-World War Two unification process, said a “Conference on the Future of Europe” was necessary to make the EU “more united and sovereign” across a range of challenges. The two-page Franco-German paper said other areas where Europe needed to be more united included its near neighbors, digitalization, climate change, migration, the fight against inequality, the “social market economy” and the rule of law.
The EU’s two heavyweights said citizens would need to be closely involved in the reflection on Europe’s future through a “bottom-up process” of consultations.They said recommendations agreed at a closing conference in the first half of 2022 should be presented to the European Council of member states’ leaders for debate and implementation.
Manfred Weber, leader of the center-right European People’s Party in the European Parliament, said in an opinion column on Tuesday that it is the role of an assembly directly elected by European citizens to fight for a more democratic Europe. FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcome European Commission president-elect Ursula Von der Leyen after a joint Franco-German cabinet meeting in Toulouse, France, October 16, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo
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