French President Emmanuel Macron is heading to Berlin for meetings with Angela Merkel in the hopes of winning support from the German chancellor on his ambitious reform plan for the European Union.

The two leaders who are meeting Thursday share some common ground but it's unclear how much support Macron can expect from Germany for his plans to reform Europe's financial structure.

In their deal to form a new German government, Merkel's conservative party and its center-left partners agreed that Germany — like France — is prepared to pay more into the EU budget.

But Berlin has been skeptical in its response so far to the possibility of a shared budget and Merkel is lukewarm about Macron's idea of a eurozone finance minister.