The European Union is in danger of breaking apart unless France and Germany work harder to stimulate growth and employment and heed citizens’ concerns, the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in Berlin.
Valls said the two countries, for decades the axis around which the EU revolved, had to help refocus the bloc to tackle an immigration crisis, a lack of solidarity between member states, Britain's looming exit, and terrorism.
“Europe is in danger of falling apart. So Germany and France have a huge responsibility,” Valls said at an event organised by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
He said France must continue to open up its economy, not least by cutting corporate taxation, while Germany and the EU as a whole must increase investment that would stimulate growth and job creation, as well as boosting defence, Reuters reports.
Valls added that Donald Trump’s election victory had boosted the chance of the National Front leader Marine Le Pen's victory.
