ANGELA Merkel has revealed her masterplan for further integration and a true union to ensure European Union members join a single currency eurozone.
The German Chancellor said she is committed to ensuring further integration within the bloc after a long-awaited package of reforms to introduce Europe's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was finally been unveiled.
Speaking about the bloc's monetary union following the second day of the EU summit, Angela Merkel said it was time to "further promote EMU".
She said: "Right now it is in a very favourable position, after years of crisis we are now able to record growth and growth in the number of jobs created.
"But now is the time for structural reforms and also the time for further promoting of EMU.
"There are proposals to this and on the table I talked to the French president and by March we want a common position on this, a convergence of our position which is most important for further development of the EU monetary union.
"We want to see that our finance ministers develop a masterplan for this."
Her comments come as Brussels puts a special emphasis on reform as well as on deepening the bloc’s co-operation against a backdrop of Brexit and growing anti-EU sentiment across the continent.
Mrs Merkel added: "It would be very important for us to come to a true economic and monetary union in the sense that our competiveness is enhanced."
Before adding she would like to achieve "economic convergence among member states".
During the same press conference standing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Mrs Merkel blasted EU members as she called for solidarity to tackle the migrant crisis.
It comes after EU leaders agreed the UK had made "sufficient progress" in phase 1 of Brexit talks to move on to the second phase.
European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis announced the measures for the completion of the EMU earlier this week.
He said: “We are currently proposing how we can support the preparatory work and necessary reforms in those countries wishing to join euro zone.
"And by this we are showing that euro zone should be enlarging, and the commission is ready to assist those member states working on this to ensure that they can be prepared to join the eurozone and can prosper within the eurozone.
“The main idea is to make the eurozone stable and sustainable against potential future economic shocks.
“We must also restart the process of convergence within the European Union.
"We are starting a series of initiatives, such as creating a separate eurozone budget line within the European budget to ensure fiscal stability.”