Brussels, 04/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - The French finance minister, Pierre Moscovici, said in Brussels on Monday 4 June that France would be reducing its excess deficit to below the 3% cut-off point in 2013 and would reach a balanced budget in 2017. He said the 2013 target could be achieved without any further austerity measures. He commented after a meeting with Olli Rehn, the euro commissioner, that he was keen to show that France was serious and responsible and had a credible programme and the 2013 target was completely do-able. Moscovici pointed out that the French government would shortly be introducing a finance law for 2013-2015 and although France and the Commission shared the same targets, he said France has its own ways of doing things.
France is one of the 12 member states whose macroeconomic imbalances have been investigated by the European Commission. Moscovici admitted that France has lost a lot of its international competitiveness over the past ten years and was introducing tax reforms to make the country more competitive. Moscovici also had meetings with Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier and Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.
Banking union. Moscovici hoped that the European summit at the end of the month could make a decisive move for growth and kick off a new phase of the European construction, potentially in the form of a banking union that France has been calling for. Asked whether the European Stability Mechanism should be allowed to provide aid direct to struggling banks, Rehn said it would be one way of breaking the connection between sovereign debt and bank debt, but it was important to take advantage of the talks on a banking union to consider setting up a European Bank Guarantee Fund. Moscovici hoped this would be one of the points on which movement would be seen.
Greece. Asked about the political crisis in Greece, both Rehn and Moscovici said that Greece should remain in the eurozone. Moscovici said the eurozone needed Greece to remain and it would be good for Greece to do so. He said the promises already made had to be stuck to, in other words the Greeks must respect the austerity programme they had negotiated with their international lenders, but Greece's problems should be examined and they should be given some cause for hope. Rehn said that respecting the austerity programme would be the best solution for Greece. (MB/transl.fl)