France’s Emmanuel Macron will hold talks Wednesday with Germany’s Angela Merkel for the second time in a week to chart a united front on issues ranging from Brexit to Syria ahead of this week’s EU summit.
Macron goes into the two-day meeting in Brussels starting Thursday still smarting from the rejection of his pick for European commissioner, Sylvie Goulard.
The resounding “No” by European MEPs to Goulard, who has been caught up in an investigation into fake jobs for parliamentary assistants, was seen as a blow to Macron’s drive to boost France’s influence in Brussels.
On Wednesday, the French and German governments will hold a joint ministerial meeting in the southwestern French city of Toulouse to discuss how to move forward with some of the European projects that Macron has championed. They will be later joined by by incoming European Commission chief, Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen.
The ministerial council is the first since the two countries signed a treaty in January committing to wide-ranging cooperation on areas such as foreign policy, defence and energy.
Via France 24
