French finance minister presses Germany to move ahead with plans for EU economic reform

France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire is pressing Germany to move ahead with plans for economic reform in the European Union, arguing that ordinary citizens’ patience is “exhausted,” AP said. The two countries’ leaders agreed in June to create a eurozone budget aimed at boosting investment and improving the effectiveness of the 19-nation currency area’s rescue mechanism. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has largely been preoccupied by domestic political problems since then. Le Maire told Thursday’s edition of German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung the pledges must be acted on, adding that “not making decisions feeds populism.” The minister said that “the domestic political situation on one side or the other must not be used as a pretext to delay pressing European policy decisions.”