‘It's up to us’: How Merkel and Macron revived EU solidarity

It took a courtroom of scarlet-robed judges to spur Angela Merkel to make one of her boldest moves in 15 years as German chancellor: propose huge cash handouts to the European Union's weaker economies.

Merkel was already worried about the future of the Union after the coronavirus pandemic struck Europe in February, triggering a wave of deaths and crippling lockdowns.

But it was Germany's own Constitutional Court that tipped her hand, sources said. Its bombshell ruling on May 5 challenged the EU's reliance on European Central Bank (ECB) money-printing to keep its weaker members' economies afloat - and the EU's governance.

Until then, Merkel had opposed a proposal by French President Emmanuel Macron for a Recovery Fund that would, for the first time, bind all 27 member states to raise debt jointly.

"Initially they were on quite different positions," said...