Brussels, 04/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - France says that any increase in Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) to deal with the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone must take a three-pronged approach by focussing on growth, striking a balance between monitoring and solidarity and increasing democratic legitimacy.
Addressing the French national assembly on Tuesday, French prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called for coordination of economic policies in the eurozone to be used to boost growth, saying that this was a manifestation of the economic government for which France had been calling for years. The second demand is for a balance between the development of financial solidarity mechanisms and budgetary vigilance. Saying that there could not be a Europe without solidarity, Ayrault called for the eurozone to have common financial and budget instruments to deal with external shocks and enable countries facing difficulties to overcome them and return to growth. He pointed out that the European Stability Mechanism would play a greater role in the future in bailing out struggling banks, and that France wanted to see a pooling of a portion of debt through the emission of eurobonds. He added that it was time for new bank legislation across the whole of Europe - which France will do immediately without waiting - to hive off the management of savings from risky trading, referring to the ideas set out in the Liikanen Report (see EUROPE 10701).
The third French demand is for greater democratic legitimacy for the current increases in European integration. To this end, the prime minister mentioned the budget pact, which has been controversial within the French coalition government and also within the majority Socialist party. Ayrault said that in time, the budget pact currently being ratified would set up an inter-parliamentary conference of national parliamentarians and MEPs, which would debate the European Commission's Annual Growth Forecasts and the Commission's draft economic guidelines for the eurozone. (MB/transl.fl)