PARIS (MNI) – Eurozone governments should have the final word on
whether to apply sanctions proposed by the European Commission for
excessive deficits, French Budget Minister Valerie Pecresse argued
Monday.
“What we want is a ‘golden rule'” for balanced budgets in each of
the Eurozone member states, the minister explained in a radio interview.
“It’s a choice we are making to submit to discipline that is
controlled by the Commission; but we are the ones who impose that
discipline, it’s our parliaments that decide this golden rule.”
While French President Nicolas Sarkozy called last week for more
automatic sanctions for budget offenders, he also insisted on the
responsibility of political leaders to decide on fiscal policy.
This is one of stumbling blocks to a Franco-German accord to
counter the Eurozone debt crisis, since Berlin is adamant that eventual
budget sanctions be automatic. Sarkozy meets with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel today to try to iron out differences in their respective
positions.
“Today our national sovereignty must be assured by more European
integration,” Pecresse conceded. “The European Union has a role to play
via budget convergence, via budget discipline.”
With presidential elections less than six months away, Sarkozy’s
government remains wary of appearing to cede too much authority over
national budgets to the bureaucracy in Brussels.
Hence, budgets should be “voted by national parliaments” and
monitored by “national” constitutional authorities, Pecresse argued. In
the case of France, the National Council would play this role. Then it
would be up to the states themselves “to approve or not the sanctions
proposed by the Commission.”
–Paris newsroom, +331 4271 5540; jduffy@marketnews,com
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