Angela Merkel said she backed proposals for a eurozone budget and a Brussels-based finance minister, in a ringing endorsement¹ of Emmanuel Macron’s vision for far-reaching reform of the single currency area.

德国总理安格拉?默克尔(Angela Merkel)表示，她支持有关制定欧元区共同预算和设立欧元区财政部长职位的提议。她的表态，有力地支持了法国总统埃曼纽尔?马克龙(Emmanuel Macron)提出的对这个单一货币区进行具有深远意义的改革的构想。

Her comments were the clearest indication yet that she plans to make overhauling² the eurozone a key priority if she wins next month’s Bundestag elections and a central plank³ of her political legacy⁴.

她的言论是迄今最为明显的迹象，表明如果她赢得下月的德国联邦议院(Bundestag)选举，她计划将欧元区改革作为重要优先任务并使之成为她本人政治遗产的重要组成部分。

But experts stress that French and German perceptions of eurozone integration⁵ still widely diverge⁶, and Ms Merkel herself said there was still no clarity about what a eurozone finance minister would actually do.

但专家们强调，法国和德国对欧元区一体化的看法仍存在巨大分歧。默克尔本人也表示，目前仍不确定欧元区财长实际上将做些什么。

The chancellor⁷ made the comments at her annual summer press conference in Berlin, where she spoke⁸ for more than an hour-and-a-half on subjects ranging from Europe’s refugee crisis to relations with Turkey to the diesel⁹ scandal.

默克尔是在于柏林举行的年度夏季新闻发布会上发表上述言论的，她在会上的讲话超过一个半小时，涉及欧洲难民危机、德国与土耳其的关系以及柴油车丑闻等等。

With less than a month till the elections, Ms Merkel has been under pressure to provide more detail about her plans for the eurozone. Her Social Democrat¹⁰ challenger Martin Schulz has been much more explicit¹¹ in his support for Mr Macron’s reform ideas and accused the chancellor of lacking a vision for the future of Europe.

现在距离德国联邦议院选举还有不到一个月的时间，默克尔面临着提出更详尽的欧元区计划的压力。她的挑战者、来自社会民主党(Social Democrat)的马丁?舒尔茨(Martin Schulz)更明确地表态支持马克龙的改革想法，并指责默克尔对欧洲的未来缺乏构想。

Mr Macron has stepped up calls long made by an Italian-led group of southern eurozone countries for a common budget, one that finances investment to stimulate¹² growth and has a stabilising effect during economic crises. He has suggested that financing this with fresh debt should be an option. He also envisages¹³ the creation of a eurozone parliament to pass a euro-budget.

以意大利为首的欧元区南方国家长期以来呼吁制定欧元区共同预算，为投资项目提供资金以刺激经济增长，并在经济危机时期发挥稳定性作用。马克龙则发出了更强烈的呼声。他提出，可以考虑通过发行新债为预算融资。他还设想创建一个欧元区议会来审议欧元区预算。

On Tuesday, Mr Macron reiterated¹⁴ that he would push for more social and fiscal¹⁵ “convergence” in the currency union. France, he told ambassadors in Paris, will outline a “dozen” proposals in the weeks following the German election to reform the eurozone.

周二，马克龙重申，他将推动欧元区在社会和财政方面的进一步“融合”。他告诉各国驻巴黎大使，法国将在德国选举后的几周内列出十几条改革欧元区的提议。

He added that Brexit was an opportunity for an “avant-garde” of countries who want to “move forward” to do so “without being hampered¹⁶ by member states who wish, that’s their right, to move more slowly or less far”.

他补充称，英国退欧对于一些“前卫”国家来说是一个机会，这些国家希望“向前迈进”，“不被那些希望步伐慢一点或小一点——这是它们的权利——的国家拖后腿”。

Ms Merkel’s proposal on the eurozone budget is less ambitious than Mr Macron’s — a kind of fund to reward countries carrying out structural¹⁷ reforms. She said she envisaged¹⁸ a budget made up of “small contributions” rather than “hundreds of billions of euros”. It would disburse¹⁹ funds to countries that are reforming their economies “but which the Stability and Growth Pact²⁰ doesn’t allow much room for manoeuvre²¹”.

默克尔有关欧元区预算的提议不如马克龙那么雄心勃勃，即设立一种基金，奖励那些实施结构性改革的国家。她表示，她设想的预算是由“小规模缴款”组成的，而非“数千亿欧元”那种级别。它将把资金拨给那些正在推行经济改革、“但在《稳定与增长公约》框架下没有多大运作空间”的国家。

But even such a modest idea could be risky²² for Ms Merkel. German voters tend to suspect that any reform of the euro area is an attempt to get at their hard-earned cash. Germans fear the eurozone could transform into a transfer union, where member countries can issue common debt.

但对默克尔来说，即便是这种温和的观点也可能是有风险的。德国选民往往怀疑，欧元区的任何改革都是要拿走他们辛苦挣来的钱。德国人担心，欧元区可能转变为一个转移联盟，成员国可能发行共同债券。

Ms Merkel has already ruled out any mutualisation of debt. But at the same time, she is making clear that she still wants to leave her mark on the euro area. “Her next term will probably be her last, so ensuring that the eurozone is on a stable footing would be important for her legacy,” said Mujtaba Rahman of Eurasia Group.

默克尔已经排除了任何债务分担的可能性，但同时她明确表示，仍希望在欧元区留下自己的印记。欧亚集团(Eurasia Group)的穆杰塔巴?拉赫曼(Mujtaba Rahman)表示：“她的下一任期可能是最后一任任期，因此确保欧元区根基稳固将对其政治遗产非常重要。”

He said Germany also felt it had to do as much as possible to help Mr Macron succeed and ensure that he was not replaced at the next presidential election by Marine²³ Le Pen of the National Front. “There is a recognition in Berlin that Macron’s and the EU’s success are intertwined,” he said.

拉赫曼表示，德国也认为必须尽力帮助马克龙取得成功，并确保他不会在下次总统大选中被法国国民阵线(National Front)的马琳?勒庞(Marine Le Pen)击败。他说：“柏林认识到，马克龙的成功和欧盟的成功密切相关。”

In addition to her comments on the euro-budget, Ms Merkel also said she supported the idea of a eurozone “economics and finance minister” who would help to provide “greater” coherence²⁴ in economic policy across the single currency area and ensure that “competitive factors are harmonised”.

除了谈到欧元区预算以外，默克尔还表示，她支持设立欧元区“经济和财政部长”的想法，这将提高整个单一货币区经济政策的一致性，并确保“竞争性因素和谐统一”。

She also backed her finance minister Wolfgang Sch?uble’s proposal to turn the European Stability Mechanism²⁵, the eurozone’s bailout fund, into a European Monetary²⁶ Fund.

她还支持其财政部长沃尔夫冈?朔伊布勒(Wolfgang Sch?uble)提出的将欧元区纾困基金——欧洲稳定机制(European Stability Mechanism)转变为欧洲货币基金(European Monetary Fund)的提议。

“It’s a very good idea,” she told reporters. “We would be able to show the world that we have all the mechanisms²⁷ in our eurozone portfolio²⁸ to be able to react to unexpected situations”.

她向记者表示：“这是一个非常好的主意。我们将能够向全世界表明，我们拥有一切能够对突发情况做出反应的机制。”