Germany's Merkel appears open to compromise on EU reforms

German Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled her willingness to find compromises with France when it comes to reforming the European Union, as she hosted French President Emmanuel Macron for talks Thursday in Berlin.

Macron has outlined ambitious plans for greater economic integration across the 28-nation bloc, but his proposals have met resistance in some member countries, including among conservatives in Merkel's party.

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, is welcomed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel before they visit the reconstruction site of the Berlin Palace in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, April 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, is welcomed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel before they visit the reconstruction site of the Berlin Palace in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, April 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Merkel, who was recently confirmed for a fourth term at the helm of Europe's biggest economy, said at the very least she is willing to talk.

"There are of course always different starting points when it comes to the opinions of Germany and France," she told reporters at a joint news conference with Macron. "We need open debates — and in the end we need the ability to compromise."

While Germany and France agree on the need to better protect the EU's external borders and forge a common asylum policy, it's unclear how much backing Macron can expect from Germany for his plans to reform the bloc'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.

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, is welcomed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel before they visit the reconstruction site of the Berlin Palace in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, April 19, 2018. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, is welcomed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel before they visit the reconstruction site of the Berlin Palace in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, April 19, 2018. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)

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.

The French president made clear he won't drop his demand for greater financial solidarity, particularly among the 19 countries that share the euro as a currency, which includes both Germany and France.

"No currency union can survive if there aren't instruments for convergence," Macron said, citing the need for a banking union — something Germany has resisted for fear of being held liable for future bailouts abroad.

Merkel said Germany would be willing to agree in the long term to a pan-European deposit insurance scheme, but insisted that solidarity shouldn't undermine economic competitiveness among the bloc's economies.

French President Emmanuel Macron, center left, is welcomed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel before they visit the reconstruction site of the Berlin Palace in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, April 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, is welcomed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel before they visit the reconstruction site of the Berlin Palace in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, April 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

Guenther Oettinger, the EU's budget chief and a member of Merkel's conservative party, weighed in on the debate Thursday by saying Europe's current economic strength should be used to prepare for potential future crises.

"Now is the time to make the economic and currency union, and therefore the eurozone, weather proof," he said in a clear message to his own party.

A failure to agree upon fundamental EU reforms in the coming months could scupper further efforts until after the 2019 European Parliament elections, as mainstream parties shy away from proposals that might play into the hands of populists.

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, is welcomed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel before they visit the reconstruction site of the Berlin Palace in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, April 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, is welcomed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel before they visit the reconstruction site of the Berlin Palace in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, April 19, 2018. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)

Macron's flying visit to Berlin started at the unfinished Humboldt Forum, a museum that's being built on the site where the German Kaiser's palace stood until it was largely destroyed in World War II. The forum is named after the brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt, two 19th-century German intellectuals who spent many years in Paris.

Both leaders noted the intentional symbolism of their visit to the building site at a time when Europe is being reshaped.

Closed doors talks between Merkel and Macron later Thursday were expected to touch on Europe's stance on the crisis in Syria and the fate of the nuclear deal with Iran.

Both leaders fly to Washington next week for separate meetings with President Donald Trump at which those issues will play a central role.

German chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and French President Emmanuel Macron joke after their visit to the reconstruction site of the Berlin palace, Thursday, April 19, 2018. (Kay Nietfeld/Pool Photo via AP)

German chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and French President Emmanuel Macron deliver statements after their visit to the reconstruction site of the Berlin palace, Thursday, April 19, 2018. (Kay Nietfeld/Pool Photo via AP)

France and Germany were part of the six-nation group that negotiated the 2015 deal to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and both countries are keen to prevent it from falling apart when Trump's May 12 deadline for major changes to the pact expires.

On Syria, Berlin's decision not to join the U.S., Britain and France in attacking suspected chemical weapons sites last week highlighted Germany's hesitancy when it comes to military action abroad. Berlin has stressed the need for a diplomatic solution to the war that's seen more than 700,000 Syrians seek refuge in Germany at considerable political cost to Merkel.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The deaths of seven World Central Kitchen workers in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza was a tragic turn for an American homegrown charity that, in less than 15 years, has mushroomed from the grassroots brainchild of a celebrity chef into one of the world’s most recognized food relief organizations.

The killings also interrupted a crucial flow of desperately needed food into the besieged coastal strip, as international organizations and charities warn of a looming famine. World Central Kitchen, in partnership with the United Arab Emirates, had just delivered a cargo ship with 400 tons of canned goods from Cyprus to Gaza. Around 100 tons were unloaded before the charity suspended operations, in the wake of the attack; the rest was being taken back to Cyprus, Cypriot Foreign Ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis said.

It's an unprecedented crisis for José Andrés, the restauranteur who founded the charity to provide immediate food relief to disaster-stricken areas and has grown it into a global operation working in multiple war zones. Founded in 2010, the organization achieved international prominence for its work in Puerto Rico in 2017 feeding victims of Hurricane Maria. It also operates in Ukraine, providing more than 100 million meals to refugees, according to the group's website, and earning Andrés a medal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

World Central Kitchen has quickly become a mainstay of American philanthropy, with contributions on par with much older organizations. The charity in 2022 reported $518 million in total contributions and Andrés himself received $100 million from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2021.

Andrés rose to prominence with a string of successful restaurants in Washington, D.C., just as the celebrity chef phenomenon was taking off. He developed close ties with former President Barack Obama at a time when current President Joe Biden served as vice president. Andrés prepared meals at the White House, and Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama were frequent guests at his restaurants. The Spanish-born Andrés became a naturalized citizen during the Obama administration in a ceremony at the White House.

He remains connected to the Biden administration, serving as co-chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition. In February, he spoke at a conference on hunger hosted by second gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Andrés publicly feuded with former President Donald Trump over a planned restaurant in what was then the Trump International Hotel in Washington. The chef tried to pull out of a contract in protest over Trump's incendiary comments about Mexican and Latin American immigrants crossing the U.S. border. The pair sued each other and then settled out of court. When the hotel was sold and reopened as a Waldorf-Astoria; Andrés almost immediately announced new plans to launch a restaurant there.

In a statement Tuesday night, Biden said he had spoken with Andrés “to convey my deepest condolences for the deaths of these courageous aid workers and to express my continued support for his and his team’s relentless and heroic efforts to get food to hungry people around the globe.”

Biden said bluntly that Israel was not doing enough to protect aid workers. “This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed,” he said.

When fighters from Hamas — the militant group that controls Gaza — breached the border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 Israelis and taking hundreds of hostages, Andrés quickly moved to organize support for Gazan civilians sure to be caught up in the Israeli military response. With funding from the Emirati government, his group organized an initial food shipment from Cyprus and set up more than 60 kitchens in Gaza producing thousands of meals a day. The latest food shipment was meant to expand upon that model.

In a March telephone interview with The Associated Press shortly before the most recent shipment launched from Cyprus, Andrés credited his campaign with sparking governments into action and helping inspire the U.S. government plan to build a temporary port in Gaza to receive aid shipments.

"We have awakened the international community to do more for the people of Gaza,” he told the AP. “Everybody should have food and water, it’s a universal right.”

The loss of World Central Kitchen's efforts will be a serious blow to overall humanitarian efforts in Gaza.

“WCK is a key player in efforts to address food insecurity in Gaza and has provided essential food aid to thousands of families, contributing significantly to combating the catastrophic hunger there,” said a statement from the U.N.'s World Food Program.

The killings may also represent a turning point in Andrés' public perspective on the Israeli government. The chef was a vocal critic of Hamas in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks. He spoke on the X social media platform of Israel's right to defend its citizens and called for the ouster of a Spanish government minister who accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza.

But on Tuesday, Andrés harshly criticized the Israeli military.

“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon,” he wrote on X. “No more innocent lives lost.”

His organization laid the blame squarely on the Israel Defense Forces, saying the IDF had coordinated over the movement of the cars carrying the workers as they left northern Gaza late Monday.

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Israel’s military chief, said Tuesday that the strike was "a mistake that followed a misidentification — at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn’t have happened.”

Footage of the aftermath showed a vehicle with the charity’s logo printed across its roof to make it identifiable from the air. A projectile had blasted a large hole through the roof. Two other vehicles in the convoy were incinerated and mangled, indicating multiple hits.

Other footage showed the bodies, several wearing protective gear with the charity’s logo, at a hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah. Those killed included three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national, an American-Canadian dual citizen and a Palestinian, according to hospital records.

Associated Press reporters Thalia Beaty and Rhonda Shafner in New York City, Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, Hannah Arhirova in Kyiv, and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

In this undated photo provided by Free Place Foundation and posted on Facebook on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, Damian Sobol of Poland, left, one of the seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza on Monday, poses for a selfie with Marta Wilczynska, head of the Free Place Foundation. (Free Place Foundation's Facebook via AP)

Palestinians inspect a vehicle with the logo of the World Central Kitchen wrecked by an Israeli airstrike in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. A series of airstrikes killed seven aid workers from the international charity, leading it to suspend delivery Tuesday of vital food aid to Gaza. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)

FILE - A member of the World Central Kitchen prepares a pallet with the humanitarian aid for transport to the port of Larnaca from where it will be shipped to Gaza, at a warehouse near Larnaca, Cyprus, on March 13, 2024. World Central Kitchen, the food charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, called a halt to its work in the Gaza Strip after an apparent Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, mostly foreigners. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)

FILE - Jose Andres, a Spanish chef, and founder of World Central Kitchen unloads the humanitarian food packages delivered with WCK's truck in Kherson, Ukraine, on Nov. 15, 2022. World Central Kitchen, called a halt to its work in the Gaza Strip after an apparent Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, mostly foreigners. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)