EU Commission hails Franco-German deal on deeper euro zone integration

Reuters
European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici holds a new conference on the European Semester Spring package at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium May 23, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission welcomed on Wednesday a joint position of the euro zone's two biggest countries -- Germany and France -- on the key elements of deeper euro zone integration calling it a crucial step for reaching an overall agreement. "I think the agreement yesterday between President Macron and Chancellor Merkel represents a crucial political step toward an agreement," European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici told a news conference "Experience shows that even if an agreement between France and Germany is not enough for an final agreement it is true that an agreement without such an understanding is unthinkable. The condition sine qua non is that Paris, Berlin and Brussels move forward together," he said. (Reporting By Jan Strupczewski, Robert-Jan Bartunek and Julia Echikson)