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In an interview for the German Handelsblatt, the French Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde suggested that European countries that do not respect deficit limits should be punished. Lagarde proposes that the punishment could be to forbid those States to participate in EU decision-making. This sounds at least strange coming from the Minister of a country with 8% budget deficit and huge public debt.

The Commission's proposal, which amends Regulation 1060/2009, will now pass to the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament for consideration. If adopted, the new rules would be expected to come into force during 2011. The Commission has already compelled CRAs that would like their credit ratings to be used in the EU to apply for registration.

The demonstrations against the “reforms” in France have been less vigorous than expected. There is an evident explanation for this – neither the austerity plan, nor the pension reform engaged by the government is concerning the public sector. Civil servants have therefore no reason to be worried –the private sector is still paying for them.

After weeks of internal discussions, the French government is unveiling its proposals to reform the pension system. One of the key measures is to push back the legal age of retirement, which currently stands at 60. The socialist party is fiercely opposed to this measure and is appealing to demonstrations.
IREF' research fellow Emmanuel Martin participated in the dicussion on the pension reform on France 24. To see the broadcast click here.
 

This is a statement of the former minister of finances Thierry Breton. According to him, in 2013 France will exceed the amount of bonds emitted by Germany. The debt in the euro zone will become therefore mostly “latin”, with France, Italy, Spain and Portugal becoming the main debtor nations. They have, adds Thierry Breton, built their national (cheap) debt on the solidity of the German bonds but this era is coming to an end. Nowadays, the totality of the income tax revenues in France is going to the payment of the interest of the public debt.