French President Francois Hollande has said the EU must reform and scale back its power, amid a surge in support for Eurosceptic and far-right parties.
Mr Hollande, whose party was beaten by the far right in last week's European Parliament election, said the EU had become too complex and remote.
In response, he will tell EU leaders at a meeting in Brussels later that they must focus on boosting the economy.
The three big pro-EU centrist blocs are still on course for a majority.
But they have lost seats in the European Parliament to parties seeking to curb EU powers or abolish the union, among them the UK Independence Party which came first in the domestic vote with 27% according to provisional results.
In France, the far-right National Front stormed to victory with a preliminary 25% of the vote, pushing Mr Hollande's Socialists into third place.Speaking on French TV, Mr Hollande - a leading champion of the EU - said the project had become "remote and incomprehensible", and that that had to change.
"Europe has to be simple, clear, to be effective where it is needed and to withdraw from where it is not necessary," he said.
He said the union had overcome the crisis in the eurozone "but at what price? An austerity that has ended up disheartening the people".
When European Union leaders meet on Tuesday he would "reaffirm that the priority is growth, jobs and investment", he said.
Mrs Merkel - whose conservative Christian Democratic Union won a comfortable 35% of the vote in Germany - said it was now up to the established parties of Europe to win voters back by focusing on "improving competitiveness, on growth and creating jobs".
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