France and Germany are determined to reach a common position on how best to strengthen economic safeguards within the single currency bloc before the end of June, when eurozone leaders meet in Brussels to agree on a roadmap for reform, French and German finance ministers said.
“After [this] informal Council [in Sofia] I’m confident we will find a consensus,” France’s Bruno Le Maire told reporters at a press conference in Sofia, where EU finance ministers gathered for a series of informal meetings this week.
“I will go to Germany as soon as possible to follow up on the discussions from a technical and political point of view with [Finance Minister Olaf Scholz] with the view of reaching an agreement by the end of June,” he said.
Specifically, the two finance ministers will discuss reducing bad loans on bank balance sheets, providing a financial backstop for the EU authority handling failing banks, upgrading the eurozone’s bailout arm, and developing a eurozone fund to curb economic shocks, Le Maire said.
All initiatives are designed to mitigate any potential fallout that could emerge from a future financial crisis.
Scholz, reflecting Berlin’s more cautious approach to reform, did not go as far as Le Maire in his comments in Sofia, but insisted that Berlin and Paris “are working very hard to find solutions.”
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