Paris' push for a sizeable budget to strengthen the euro area has suffered another blow after France lost support from some fellow eurozone members.
EU finance ministers agreed on the general structure of a scaled-back eurozone budget after eight hours of talks Wednesday night. On the way to agreement, they put in safeguards requested by Nordic countries.
The Netherlands, Ireland and other Hansa countries reached across the currency divide to ally with noneuro countries Denmark and Sweden against France’s integrationist plans.
France was pushing for a credible cash pot to support reforms in eurozone countries and ultimately help absorb sudden economic shocks across the currency union.
The pushback leaves the eurozone budget with an expected and unofficial size of €17 billion over seven years, a far cry from French President Emmanuel Macron's initial goal of a budget equivalent to several percentage points of eurozone economic output.
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