BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday that she wanted the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the euro zone's rescue fund, to be transformed into a long-term instrument.
Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron will chair a meeting of the Franco-German Council of Ministers in Berlin on Tuesday, where they will discuss reforming the European Union.
Merkel said she hoped they would "make a little bit of progress" at the meeting, which comes ahead of a June 28-29 EU summit.
Merkel has backed Macron's proposal to turn the ESM into a European Monetary Fund (EMF) with powers to give members hit by sovereign debt troubles short-term credit lines.
(Reporting by Michelle Martin and Gernot Heller, editing by Thomas Escritt)
