Macron given European prize, tells Germany to drop budget ‘fetish’

French President Emmanuel Macron has been awarded the Charlemagne Prize, an honour given each year by the German city of Aachen to those it considers make a significant contribution to European unity and development, when he told assembled guests at the ceremony, who included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that Berlin must do away with a ‘fetish’ for tight budgetary discipline among EU member states.