d.w. on facebook and twitter to date in touch follow us. this is t w news coming to you live from berlin germany and france joined forces to help lead the credit crisis chance under the backlit president manuel are poised to announce a joint plan designed to boost the continent's battered economy and protect public health bring their press conference to you live.

hello i'm terry martin thanks for joining us german chancellor angela merkel and french president. are expected shortly to detail a joint plan to help europe recover from the coded 900 crisis it comes after both leaders addressed a birchwood meeting of the world health organization's governing body this year's world health assembly is focused almost entirely on boosting global cooperation to fight the pandemic. and we'll be bringing you some live pictures hopefully in just a few moments from the joint press conference from the german and french leaders but 1st let's cross over to do w. political correspondent thomas sparrow he's standing by for us at our parliamentary studios and he's here to break this down for a certain most likely expect from this unusual event you mentioned terry already one of the key elements those discussions on how to recover the economy in the

european union in particular and in the euro zone that is something that we'll probably hear in a few minutes from both corn and merkel and this comes as european countries step by step gradually reopening and changing some of those restrictions that we have been covering both for a very long time obviously all focused on national circumstances so each country obviously making decisions based on those national circumstances so that means and now the focus more and more is on how to fight this internationally and in particular when we look at the economic aspect of it all because it is clear that the european union countries and again in particular the eurozone will suffer very hard from this crisis there are already reports that the eurozone could contract 7.7 percent this year we've also heard for example from germany's economy minister a few weeks ago that germany is preparing for his worst recession in decades so

obviously now all european countries are trying to find common ways out of this in fact if you are focusing on that economic aspect and what we're going to hear today in particular if those reports that have come out before the meeting are true is a specific proposal from germany and france in this regard but again it is not only about the economy we've heard also from french sources that this could also tackle other areas whether it's health whether it's digitalisation whether it is the environment so this is indeed a big proposal coming from germany and france. ok but if this proposal is just coming from france and germany of course or many other countries in europe and you're talking about an international approach why the franco german initiative i'm terry you're pointing to a very important issue because in the past when germany and france have presented proposals other countries have sometimes reacted with skepticism or with criticism

particularly because it is seen as something that has to be tackled at a european level in particular when we talk about germany and france we have to talk about the treaty of a few months ago there in 2019 that was signed between both countries to enhance cooperation to bring proposals together to the table on a wide variety of issues and this also a response to that initiative that france and germany want to go step by step when it comes to tackling some of those big issues that's also not forget terry that when it comes to the european recovery in the coronavirus sunday meet germany and france have not seen eye to eye all day long keyword here the corona poems francois something very different that one germany wanted so i also think this is about a message sent by france and germany that they want to work together when in the past we obviously had those issues where they did not see eye to eye tell us more tell us about how much coal and medical have been approaching this because there

has been some prick shouldn't can we say the both of them approaching this 10 demick with different ideas about how europe should respond tell us more about what differences there are. so terry it's not only germany and france it's important to state that obviously outright there was what was described as a sort of north south division in europe where the euro european union foreign ministers also not only foreign minister the finance ministers discussed some of those issues to try and tackle this crisis from a financial from an economic perspective and again those divisions that were described as of north south divide in europe with some countries favoring this issue of the corona bonzo base be issuing joint debt other countries like germany for example of the netherlands very much against that so the idea here the big dilemma that european institutions face and that the european commission will also face when he draws its budget proposal is how to combine that necessity that need

of having some financial firepower while at the same time making sure that european countries as a whole are not left too vulnerable in particular that's one of the concerns that countries such as germany netherlands austria have presented so it's a very big challenge ahead not only for individual countries or for bilateral proposals like germany and france but also from the european union perspective as for example the european commission presents its budget proposal that's absolutely vital because the next steps here have been said as something that's going to be part of the european union budget and this discussion over the european union budget is going to be also a very difficult one in the upcoming weeks. thomas are just getting some word that chancellor merkel has approached protium of her want to cut over to to the press conference with the german and french leaders video conference as you know we have a video conference today with the french president. this is what we

have been used to do a sense that one of them it stars that today we also have press conferences where you can ask both of them berlin and paris that's why i would like to say hello to paris today we talked about that manner and how we can contribute on the frankly germany level to teko the crisis and the pandemic that we agree that it's the worst crisis that the european union has ever known and its history. and this kind of crisis requires also strong reactions to franco german cooperation and franco german french. leads us to setting a signal we know that we are 27 and when france and germany give as if they can no

i think the whole of europe is in a better shape to form an opinion and to progress we need to find a way to tackle this crisis and to be strengthened by it the finance ministers and our you know heads of government and state have already issued. off guarantees on the level of the european investment bank this and also unemployment and sure. this is our 1st contribution that we are going to implement quickly that's not enough and we already said that we need funding for reconstruction to recovery. and recovery and. the question of what this recovery fund is going to look like was the topic of our debate today the goal is to strengthen the euro to strengthen european cut hegemon and solidarity in order

to master this crisis and we know that the impact of the virus in our countries is different cording to country and that's why the european cohesion is important and the economic ramifications of the virus jeopardizing their european no cohesion that's why the recovery fund has to contribute to. the possibility of all european countries to every act and to make efforts like france and germany are ready to make them already. has to work together that's why our economies has to have to recover quickly and that's why we want to issue 500000000000 euro of. the shirt term for. expenses for the sectors and regions that are hardest hit.

we are going to insist that it's justified and necessary to spend european money for this goal. in the future to. fund this money through the budgets of the different countries of course this has to comply with european budgetary law and also concerns the budgetary planning of the member states such a recovery fund has to have a legal basis and also respect the budget autonomy of the different states. but this fund is going to be created that means that the commission is growing to make this money they look. and it is going to depend on the budget of the e.u.

those 500000000000 euros are going to made available in order to help the countries and sectors that are hardest hit. this is a major effort that is necessary we are convinced of that and is going to help prove your opinion cohesion better than it is today and furthermore we are going to cooperate. to make you more. effective. and order to invest in this catastrophe and create better dynamics for the future frank good german initiative is going to concern the health sector more precisely and all the lessons that we have learnt out of it i'm very happy that france and germany are

able to announce this initiative today i think for us it's necessary in order to be able to contribute to the future of their opinion and further more you know we have our future conference of. commission together with the. european council it's going to be different after the pandemic than before because we have to talk clearly about what was not sufficient and that can also. kluwe amendments of our treaties. so today we are going to present the quick career spans to the crisis of longer responses will have to be debated because europe has to develop that's wot i had to say and over to paris.

thank you very much madame national so you feel how good this comes like you madam chancellor. and get america. yes today we have the opportunity as well as in the last weeks to exchange frequently and also to consult our. positions in order to create this initiative in this special situation that the chancellor just mentioned it's a crisis that has never been there before and requires a strong response we both said that since the beginning of the crisis that the virus does not know any borders and that the virus has hit the whole of europe we have to know clearly enough and i think we have been able to do it we have shown it that we are able to tackle this crisis and of course this is not you competency and that's where we cannot request the e.u.

to. reply to this crisis and we have to learn lessons from the pandemic the chancellor just said and i totally agree with her and then we also have to say that on the european level special measures were taken. and i don't want to forget the gestures of solidarity in europe that showed human face in the whole of europe in germany and switzerland luxembourg almost $100.00. french patients were treated and the neighboring countries and a lot of medical material was delivered and sent to the neighboring countries this is also the european spirit this is also an economic recession. bonds and also monetary a response there europe in central already took measures in

march and this led to avoiding a financial crisis and also to complying with basic positions of the real in union with very quickly rules that were hindering us to tackle the crisis were cancelled and additional measures were taken. this reaction to the crisis was very important and. killed it. it was also helped by the measures at the borders of france and germany manage to close the external borders quickly and efficiently making sure that inside of europe we could apply different measures in order to be efficient we also have to

justify our measures. we took measures at the borders that were necessary at that time under continuous consultation with the chances are we did not close the borders for all transports 250000 border dwellers were able to cross the borders as well as the food and to have product deliveries. well other countries close the borders completely to their neighboring countries furthermore there is an important debate concerning financial solidarity our european solidarity and a strong europe and this common conviction is something that the chancellor and

myself share that is why we are presenting today this franco german initiative. is the fruit of our personal exchange and exchange with our partners a close cooperation with italy portugal spain and then other lands but also with the president of the european council. chancellor already spoke about. the big lie and. healthy economy recovery environment and digital sovereignty and i am convinced that. these are the basis for our recovery and reconstruction of our economies going on health a level of we both wish to give europe a very concrete competencies to gether we engage to building the common stocks of masts and the tests also conjoint purchasing as well as

conjoined health care prevention plans and this is going to be europe a health europe that has never existed so far concerning budget and solidarity tools the chance i just spoke about a solitary fund of 500000000000 that is going to help us implement our financial goals. complying with existing treaties but the 1st time we are also proposing something altogether germany and france are proposing to the $27.00 member states to decide to together. with him to issue a common bond and as the chancellor just mentioned to you is among those those financing to help the hardest hit

sectors and the hardest hit regions and with this is going to be conjoined director g. transfer strategy and major stage and we are hoping that that you commission is going to share our opinion in when they meet and some days. this recovery fund of 500000000000 euros is not going to be a grand to a region or as sector but is going to be a budgetary. aid. and it's going to compliment the $500000000000.00 that our finance ministers have already agreed upon in that it's going to be a deliverable by the european investment bank of $500000000000.00 by the finance

ministers and 500000000000 budgetary aides through the franco german initiative we think this is absolutely necessary in order to compliment the initiatives already taken on the national level and our 3rd lever is faster environmental and digital transition the green deal the green transformation of our economy needs to be accelerated and not jeopardized by the current crisis. our climate and mischa tests and biodiversity and messages need to be accelerated and the 4th axis of a franco german plan is a real european sovereign team. we are both convinced that we

need to reduce our dependency on the strategic sectors and all saw medication and drug department we needed to 0 fight against rogue investors and also really localise investments inside of europe. france and germany are not close towards the outside. but sometimes we need to be less naive and accompany our strategic sectors closer we need to share a common strategy for industrial autonomy. that is what we are going to do and that's what we're going to strengthen. and now we are ready to reply to all questions. for you. and you've been watching a joint press conference virtual press conference as it were between the french and

german leaders chancellor angela merkel and among well my call of france they're talking about their new joint proposal for a 500000000000 euro recovery fund coming from france and germany to help europe's most hard hit regions in the pandemic our political correspondent thomas sparrow is following this for us what have we don't. this was certainly an ambitious proposal by both germany and france i think an important element in the press conference that we've just listened to was i'm going to call at the beginning of his statement stressing that this is above all a signal that france and germany ascending to the other members of the european union about the need to have this plan in place for european union recovery it's important the word signal because as we spoke terry just before the press conference not always when france and germany have met to present proposals on

different european announcements it has come down to wealth in other european capitals so this is something particularly interesting that i found from a cold statement the actual statement in compost not only this recovery fund there were other aspects as well like the need for a european union wide health strategy all the more another important element this green deal and digitalization something that again we discussed also before the press conference so it is certainly i would describe it as an ambitious statement by both leaders something that i'm going to merkel focused on as well is the need to have this fund us part of the european union budget there is why discussion in europe about the budget about the future of budgets in the european union so that was something that i'm sure that i'm going to mocha was trying to present today as an important element of that proposal and let's not forget terry that this all happens with the backdrop of this french german corporation

a corporation that was established in the german city of afghan with a treaty that precisely establishes that germany and france will work hand in hand when it comes to presenting those proposal to european union level again the key element there the word signal that they want to send to other european capitals and that something else that i found find particularly important about all this is the fact that germany and france have not seen eye to eye when it comes to. the economic aspect of europe's recovery in the past and here the key word being those corona bonds that were particularly controversial in april but it does seem that now after those discussions between both leaders they managed to come to an agreement with those 4 points the most important of the 4 points being this european union recovery fund i was just there towards the end we heard a minimum a call saying that europe needs real european solver and we heard from chancellor merkel that saying there that we have to talk about what didn't work during this

crisis and we may need to change the european treaty what do you think she's talking about there will this give you again an idea of why i described it as something being ambitious we're not only talking here about money that's going to be spent or given to particular sectors that have been badly affected we're talking about something more ambitious than that and that's precisely why i'm going to merkel was stressing that that's also precisely why i'm on way my call also mentioned that at the end of his own statement we're talking here about this recovery fund 500000000000 euros which comes on top of 500000000000 euros and had already been agreed to by the finance ministers of the european level again the idea behind all this is a targeted restricted money that's going to be specifically given to sectors alternate regions that are particularly affected and let's not forget that yes obviously this is a health issue in particular and that's why european countries also have lockdowns

why the european countries as numbers went down also started to ease those lockdowns but now the focus seems to be more and more on the economic recovery of all this and for that economic recovery for a long standing economic recovery you certainly need some of those ambitious proposals that i still think will be very controversial and hotly debated at the european union level. thomas when listening to the 2 leaders did you get the sense that they are wanting to give more responsibility more power to the european union to respond 'd in health crises for example because currently the european union does not have the power to deal with issues such as health. the european union as in many other crises has faced difficulties in trying to find a common approach terry that was absolutely evident right from the beginning of this crisis and that's also the reason why germany and france have decided to send

again that signal about trying to work together to european union level that is particularly important for both countries and if we look for example also the way germany worse of germany's type of leadership germany sees its leadership always as a leadership that it's tied intrinsically with the european union and germany has stated on various occasions different german leaders that germany can only do well if the european union does well as well for so this gives you also the impression of why for angela merkel in particular as the german chancellor it is so significant to try and find also called on approaches and try to breach some of those differences that were evident also in the past when european union leaders try to find a common approach to fight all this pandemic it's important because when we look at the decisions that have been made by european countries whether we're talking about closing the borders whether we're talking about announcing some lockdown measures or whether we're talking about easing some of those lockdown measures most of the

decisions were 1st and foremost national debts something that obviously you can understand because different european countries have faced different situations when it comes to the corona virus outbreak and yet at the same time the european union leaders have stressed that there is a need to try and work hand in hand at the european union level because obviously european union countries have close links let's not forget some that i'm on when my corn also mentioned that issue of borders that were closed borders that are not now in the process of being reopened step by step and that includes by the way the german french border so there is an increasing understanding that there has to be a common european solution a common european approach to all this one of the elements again that has been stressed that was also stressed in this. press conference was that idea of reopening the board does let's not forget that european union close external borders that european union countries also closed that a bilateral board does an odd job many other countries out step by step announced

that they're raising those restrictions so that's also shows how important it is to try and find a common approach when it comes to some of the key european union adman's those are all elements that what discussed in this press conference today told us thank you very much political correspondent thomas sparrow there and just quickly recapping for our viewers there the german germany and france have an issue have a announced a joint recovery initiative for the european union a specifically franco german an issue to involving 500000000000 euros that's going to be administered by the european commission and will go to help the the sectors and regions hardest hit in the european union that $500000000000.00 in addition to the $500000000000.00 already committed by finance ministers within the e.u. giving the you if you put those together a trillion euros for dealing with the rip coverage from this crisis which

unfortunately is still very much ongoing well as countries across europe ease virus lockdowns as we just talked about talks are continuing about how to reopen cross border tourism greece has weathered the coronavirus crisis relatively unscathed but with recession looming businesses there are desperate to salvage at least part of the summer holiday season. everything is ready for the guests entirely chechens hotel on the island of santorini but the perfect view can now only be enjoyed by locals. as long as the corona crisis continues it's not clear when or even if the tourists can come. back some of us like what it looked like the hotel owner asked the receptionist and he points out that where everything was booked last summer there's now a huge gap. because. we're not even 2 percent booked but there's no demand.