Paris: Newly minted French President Emmanuel Macron will use his first international trip, a day after being sworn in, to try to persuade Germany to build a common eurozone budget.
Mr Macron, a 39-year-old Europhile who used his inaugural address on Sunday to promise to "reform and relaunch" Europe, was sworn in during a pomp-filled inauguration at the Elysee Palace, joined by his wife Brigitte Trogneux, family and 300 dignitaries.
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France honours its new president
In ceremonies marked by youthful optimism and old-world Napoleonic pomp, Emmanuel Macron is inaugurated as France's new president pledging to fortify the European Union, redesign French politics and glue together his divided nation.
Promising to restore flagging French self-confidence, he repeatedly underlined the importance of France's place in the European Union "which protects us and enables us to project our values in the world".
However, he added, the 28-member bloc needed to be "reformed and relaunched".
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"We will need a more efficient, democratic and political Europe, because it is the instrument of our power and sovereignty," he insisted in a speech in the Elysee's gilded Salle des Fetes.
The centrist ex-economy minister and investment banker swept to victory on May 7 promising to kickstart the European project while reforming France after beating the far-right's Marine Le Pen, who wanted to ditch the euro and threatened to pull France out of the EU.
However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it clear that the politician being hailed as the potential saviour of the European project can expect short shrift if he asks Germany to fork out national funds to boost a French recovery.
Deeply relieved, as were her pro-EU colleagues, Dr Merkel had hailed his election as "spectacular" and a "victory for a strong, united Europe".
But, beneath the smiles, experts have warned talks could swiftly founder between the leaders of Europe's two "motor" economies if Germany feels it is being asked to fork out for France, notably via eurozone bonds.
Eurobonds are deeply unpopular in Germany, where they are seen as a means to force the country to pay the debts of other member states, and the idea has already seen outspoken criticism of Mr Macron from senior members of Dr Merkel's Christian Democrat party (CDU).
Last week Dr Merkel appeared to rule the idea out, and also warned that Germany could do nothing about reducing its persistently high trade surplus, despite French calls to help Europe's economic laggards by importing more.
Dr Merkel is thought to be keen to forge a personal alliance with the new French President. But she is facing elections of her own in September which will limit what she can offer.
Her party secured 33 per cent of the vote at local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia on Sunday, according to preliminary results, seizing the most populous state in the country from the opposition SPD.
The vote delivers fresh momentum as she gears up to make her bid for a fourth term as leader. The CDU had already scored victories in two other recent state elections - the small industrial state of Saarland and the northern coastal region of Schleswig Holstein.
The German government must do more to support growth and counter growing Euroscepticism, Sigmar Gabriel, the German foreign minister and a leading member of the centre-left Social Democrats warned last week. "We must stop pretending as if we were the packhorse of the European Union".
"We're the big winners in fiscal and economic terms, we're the world's exports champion because they all are buying our products."
Focusing on the joint eurozone budget, the Macron team was cited as saying it could be funded from several sources, including a new EU investment fund. Another idea expected to be mooted is the creation of a eurozone parliament.
Mr Macron is keen to bolster unity within the EU to strengthen its hand in Brexit talks with Britain.
Michel Barnier, the Frenchman leading EU talks with Britain on Brexit, was gushing on Sunday about Mr Macron's arrival, tweeting: "Good luck, Emmanuel Macron, in writing a new page for our republic. And vive European France!"
Telegraph, London; DPA
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