16/06/2017 (Agence Europe) – Following the Eurogroup meeting of Thursday 15 June, French Minister for the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire announced that “very specific” Franco-German proposals on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) would be presented on Thursday 13 July (see other articles). “The Eurozone is not quite a monetary union and is not yet an economic union. There is a unique window of opportunity. The time to move forward is now”, he said. He put forward ideas such as creating the Eurozone's own budgetary capacity, the appointment of a Eurozone minister and stimulating true economic and fiscal convergence. At their first official meeting in Berlin in mid-May, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel did not rule out the possibility of treaty change to improve the integration of the Eurozone (see EUROPE 11788). (MB)