Brussels, 07/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - The French Minister of the Economy, Emmanuel Macron, believes that the financing of the European Commission's investment plan could be better.
The Juncker plan approved by the European Council provides for the creation of a European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) under the aegis of the EIB, to draw down more than €300 billion in private investment over three years (see EUROPE 11221). This plan, which is a “major step forward”, could be improved as regards its resources, by giving it a “borrowing capacity at European level”, Macron said in an interview published on Wednesday 7 January by the daily newspaper Les Échos (our translation throughout).
The Minister argued that the Juncker plan should focus on supporting investment in the form of “equity stakes for SMEs” and pay for “research or infrastructure expenditure through grants, like a proper European future investment plan”.
'Macron' Law. In the budgetary field, Macron stressed that France is sticking to its commitments on cutting public expenditure (€50 billion by 2017) and called for this reduction to continue beyond 2017. He went on to state that Germany has an “imperative responsibility” to invest more, as France has to reform. On this point, the Macron Law bill aiming to liberalise the economy (revising the rules on the fees of the regulated professions, opening up the provision of coach transport services, allowing shops to open on evenings and weekends, etc) is currently being discussed by the national parliament. The Commission will take the final text of this bill as its basis when it assesses the French effort in terms of reducing macro-economic imbalances, in early March. (MB)