Brussels, 19/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - The in principle agreement reached on Monday between EU finance ministers for strengthening budgetary discipline in Europe, will now be examined in all EU 27 countries in view of its approval by the European Council meeting up next week on the 28th and 29th of October, in Brussels. Although Germany and France welcome this agreement, in so far as they instigated it, the United Kingdom has already said that it would be opposed any transfer of sovereignty, in a reference to the reform of the treaties included in this agreement. The President of the Italian Council, Silvio Berlusconi, said that now that stability had been assured, it was necessary to think about recovery.
The European press and the mass media in the US were also swift to respond to the agreement reached on Monday. Reactions were often neutral, sometimes enthusiastic but also, sometimes, very critical. On its Internet site, the French newspaper Le Monde displayed a very sober headline, “Paris and Berlin want to be able to impose sanctions more easily against euro zone deficits”. The same tone was adopted by the Financial Times, which noted that the Franco German agreement on the budget required the approval of all 27 member states, as well as involving renegotiation of the treaty. The French economic daily, Les Échos, said that the Stability and Growth Pact would get tougher and the treaty would be reformed.
The Spanish newspaper, El País, noted that the EU would toughen sanctions but suggested that these would not be automatic. The Nouvel Obs was more critical and believed that Germany had given in to pressure from Paris, which was also what the Financial Times Deutschland suggested, alluding to backtracking by Berlin on the automatic nature of sanctions. Its headline was, “Merkel looking after those with excessive deficits”. The editorial in this newspaper did not mince his words and described the initiative as a huge failure. Die Welt Was even more cutting and on its Internet site (Die Welt Online), suggested that France was undermining reform of the Stability and Growth Pact. The editor of the Spanish Expansión newspaper described Monday's agreement as, “a missed opportunity for fiscal stability”.
The most enthusiastic voices were detected in some of the US and Swiss media. Associated Press wrote on its site that the agreement obtained by the EU 27 constitutes, “a great leap forward for governance”. As for the AWP Swiss News agency it did not hesitate in describing it as an “ historic agreement” for reinforcing budgetary discipline in Europe. (O.L.)