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FRANCE TO ESCAPE SANCTIONS ... AGAIN
Tuesday 4th November 2003
France has once again avoided sanctions over its breach of the Growth and Stability Pact. The French Foreign Minister reassured other Member States last night that France's deficit would be reduced through spending cuts. Foreign Ministers voted not initiate enforcement measures to bring the French budget back into line.
Timothy Kirkhope, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, said:
"Just a few years after the pact was set up, the rules are being wilfully disregarded. We were told that the pact was an essential part of the framework to make a single currency work and yet the rules are being fudged. No wonder support for the Euro is at an all-time low in the UK.
What this current crisis really shows is that the Euro is failing to deliver the economic benefits its supporters promised. One of the main reasons why France is having difficulty in complying with Euro spending rules is because of the economic stagnation that has accompanied the introduction of the Euro. Tinkering with the stability pact will not solve the Euro's fundamental problem, namely that it is impossible to set a one-size-fits-all economic policy which suits all of the Euroland countries."
