The rules of the euro zone, which limit the public deficit of a country to 3% of GDP, are “deciduous” for a Europe which must “accelerate” if it wants to avoid “the release of the highway”, declared Emmanuel Macron in an interview published Friday, February 14 by the Financial Times.
“This financial and monetary framework in which we live is deciduous,” said the French president on the daily British affairs. “Europe is its moment of acceleration and execution. Because there is no longer a choice. Because it is the last toll. Afterwards, it is the outlet of the highway” , he insisted.
The stability and growth pact that links countries with the euro as a single currency requires states to limit the public deficit to 3%, unless exceptional circumstances. France is painlessly struggling to respect it, and is subject to excessive deficits procedure, which can lead to European sanctions if it does not return to the nails within the time limits.
German opposition
In this interview, Emmanuel Macron pleads once again for the European Union to have “innovative” financing solutions, for example with new common loans as during the Pandemic of COVID-19, to invest in the defense, the ‘Artificial intelligence or energy transition.
While Germany firmly opposes it, the French president says he hopes that this position is evolving after the German legislative elections on February 23, according to the newspaper.
The head of state also calls, according to the FTto return to certain EU regulations which it considers expensive and unrealistic, such as possible fines against car manufacturers which do not comply with sales quotas of electric vehicles, which it describes as “crazy”.