Emboldened by a preliminary coalition deal between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Social Democrats, Germany and France will try to inject new momentum into their stalled EU reform efforts this week when their finance ministers meet in Paris.

Peter Altmaier, one of Merkel’s closest party allies, will pay a visit to his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire on Thursday, a day after leading French and German economists unveil new recommendations for a reform of the eurozone.

The meeting is a sign that Berlin is prepared to negotiate with Paris in parallel to Merkel’s coalition talks with the SPD, which could begin later this month if members of the centre-left party give a green light at a party congress on Sunday.

“We have an acting government which can act and must continue to work,” Achim Post, deputy leader for the SPD in parliament, said. He said the coalition blueprint clinched on Friday would pave the way for a ‘paradigm shift’ on Europe away from austerity and towards more investment and jobs.

The 28-page document was also welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron, whose plans for an ambitious reform of the EU, including an overhaul of eurozone governance, were dealt a blow by an inconclusive German election in September and the political limbo that followed.

The draft, which could form the basis for Merkel’s third “grand coalition” government since taking power in 2005, raises the prospect of an “investment budget” for the single currency bloc, a nod to Macron’s call for a budget to help the eurozone cope with external economic shocks.

It also calls for the ESM bailout mechanism to be turned into a full-blown European Monetary Fund under parliamentary control and anchored in EU law.

In a sign of lingering divisions between Berlin and Paris, Macron on Friday questioned the logic of such a fund and stressed the need to complete the EU’s “banking union”, a vital project designed to sever the link between troubled banks and sovereign lenders. Berlin has been reluctant to move to the final stage by establishing a common deposit insurance scheme.

As Merkel was celebrating her deal with the SPD on Friday, Paris was rolling out the red carpet for Mario Centeno, the new president of the Eurogroup forum of eurozone finance ministers, in a signal to other countries that Macron means business.

“It’s not insignificant and certainly not innocent in terms of the message,” a French finance ministry source said of the visit by Centeno, who met with Macron, Le Maire and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

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