Macron is a man on a mission | Getty France pushes Germany on ‘convergence, transfers’ French Economy Minister Macron tells POLITICO that EU treaty changes are ‘just a matter of timing.’

BERLIN — Here’s a scenario for the next “Mission Impossible” film: Send a Frenchman to Berlin to convince Germany that France is truly determined to overhaul its economy.

The man assigned to the job in real life, French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, took a bait-and-switch approach in a visit to the German capital Tuesday.

The bait was an impassioned defense of his socialist government’s track record of reform, in which he promised new measures to improve labor market flexibility as well as an overhaul of the deeply indebted unemployment benefit system.

The switch came when he argued that structural reform alone would not be enough to save the European Union.

In a speech to German ambassadors and further comments to POLITICO, Macron warned that unless the EU as a whole — in which Germany plays a dominant role — built new institutions to coordinate economic policy and share financial risks, the entire European project could fall apart.

“Today, in the current situation, no vision means the status quo, and the status quo means the dismantling of the eurozone, de facto. So we have to move forward,” Macron, speaking in English, told the ambassadors.

On the way to Berlin, Macron told POLITICO that Europe had suffered a “lost decade” between 2005 and 2015 during which resentment of the EU had built up among voters across the bloc. Part of the problem, he said, was that Brussels had imposed an endless litany of rules on EU member states, without setting up any viable transfer mechanism to ensure that stronger countries could help out weaker ones in case of economic shocks.

“We let divergences, widening gaps set in between the member states,” he said. “Today, we have a very urgent need to move forward, or Europe will continue to mean only austerity for the people.”

“It’s a project that implies further convergence between members of the eurozone, but also transfers,” he said, referring to a eurozone budget that would be used to finance weakened member states and not just to fund infrastructure projects, as is currently the case.

While German officials — including Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday — have echoed some of Macron’s points about the need for further integration in the eurozone, they disagree with calls to move quickly toward a “transfer union.”

The German government has praised French reform efforts. But many critics, notably in the business community, are still waiting for Paris to deliver a major overhaul of its labor market, reduce unemployment and prove that it can hold to deficit-reduction targets.

If France falls further behind Germany on the economic front, the fear in Berlin is that the French will progressively become marginalized and lose their credibility as an equal partner in the Franco-German axis.

Macron’s proposals drew on French President François Hollande’s Bastille Day speech this year, in which he laid out a vision of a eurozone equipped with a shared budget, its own parliament and an executive in charge of coordinating economic policy.

Coming just two days after the eurozone signed off on a third bailout plan for Greece, Hollande’s remarks met with skepticism in Brussels and Berlin. Critics pointed out that France, which has received three extensions from the European Commission on its deficit-reduction targets since 2012, had struggled to fulfill its duties with regard to existing EU rules.

Furthermore, any major overhaul of EU institutions would require revising the bloc’s governing treaties — a prospect that Paris, traumatized by the rejection of the EU constitution in a 2005 referendum, has long resisted.

“There is always skepticism in Germany when France puts forward proposals,” Macron told POLITICO. “The Germans reply: 'Are you ready for greater convergence and a change in treaties?' Treaty change should not be taboo; it’s just a matter of timing.”

In his speech Macron said that treaty change was not likely to take place before the end of 2018, because neither Germany nor France wanted to table it ahead of general elections due in 2017.

Did you say ‘transfer’?

While Macron’s speech drew healthy applause, some proposals caused the ambassadors to cough and shift about in their seats — particularly any mention of the word “transfer.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has always resisted changes that would imply automatic transfers of German funds to other EU countries.

While Steinmeier applauded French reform efforts in a speech before Macron’s, many business leaders across the Rhine remain deeply skeptical.

On Monday, Macron dined with a group of small- and medium-sized business owners, many of whom complained about the complexity of French labor legislation, an adviser said.

“You need crazy people. Even if they lose, even if they fail” — Emmanuel Macron

France’s 3,600-page labor code is still very much a sacred cow, fiercely defended by unions and the socialist party’s left-fringe in parliament. A case in point: In August, the French Constitutional Council knocked back a part of Macron’s economic reform program that aimed to cap the amount of money workers could claim before labor tribunals in cases of wrongful dismissal.

That raises the prospect of further battles over Macron’s next reform bill — the same one he advertised before the German notables.

Furthermore, after three years in power, Hollande’s reforms have yet to bring any real impact on the economy. In August, the Moody’s credit rating agency warned that France could miss its deficit-reduction targets yet again in 2015 — a prospect that is sure to set heads shaking in Berlin.

In the meantime, Macron said that Germany was waiting for concrete proposals on his plan for treaty change, which France would put forward in September.

Acknowledging the great distance that needed to be overcome before his vision of Europe became a reality, Macron concluded his speech by saying: “You need crazy people. Even if they lose, even if they fail.”