Brussels, 25/08/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 25 August, the French President, François Hollande, repeated his calls to reinforce Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) through the creation of an economic government body for the eurozone and a relaxation of the rules on decision-making within the Eurogroup.
Having learnt lessons from the recent upheavals caused by the Greek crisis, “France and Germany to propose initiatives to kickstart Economic and Monetary Union, on pain of abandoning the European ideal”, Hollande said in Paris, at a speech at the annual conference of French ambassadors (our translation throughout).
According to the French President, national interests will take the upper hand if the EMU continues to be “an economic area with minimum rules and solidarity which is expressed only at times of crisis”. This is why he sees it is so important to launch new initiatives “in the framework of the current treaties” and in the spirit of the “Community method”, in order to get round the framework of the inter-governmental management of the public debt crisis.
Hollande called once again for an “economic government body” in the eurozone, with the authority to “enforce economic and budgetary commitments and rules and to “act in the interests of the eurozone”. Furthermore, a dedicated budget for the Nineteen, under “Parliamentary control”, would make it possible to unblock resources to invest in future-facing sectors such as the “energy and ecological transition, digital, youth employment”.
The French head of state also argued in favour of giving the Eurogroup - the informal body of the finance ministers of the eurozone - the “resources to be more effective, clearer and, to an extent, more democratic with majority-based rules”.
Aware that national interests differ over European issues, Hollande said that a number of states could not afford not to take the path defended by France, whether they are inside the eurozone or outside it. It is the logic of “differentiated integration” to which I have referred previously, he stressed (see EUROPE 11363).
Lastly, the French leader said that increased economic integration within the EMU should ultimately go hand in hand with “fiscal and social convergence”, for instance by means of bringing in “new employment laws” in Europe, to prevent a race to the bottom in social terms. (Mathieu Bion)