"I think we will come towards each other with reforms to the currency union, but these reforms to the currency union are really not the only reforms we need," Angela Merkel said, discussing migration, development and security policies.
In an interview, Merkel gave a detailed response to French President Emmanuel Macron's ideas for reforming Europe, seeking to avoid a damaging split with Paris at a time of anxiety over Italy and expanding transatlantic tensions.
"With these reforms, it will only work with compromises. I personally don't see such extensive pots of funds that should be managed at intergovernmental level as the French proposals envisage," Merkel emphasized, talking to German broadcaster WDR.
Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron are to present a common plan for eurozone reforms at the next European Council on 28 and 29 June.
Merkel earlier expressed her support for the French president's plan to create a joint European military force and commented on his aspirations to strengthen the EU in an interview, saying that the top priority, "in addition to a common foreign and defense policy and a common asylum and development policy," is for Europe to remain "economically strong and innovative."
