Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-04-Speech-2-304"
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"en.20060404.23.2-304"2
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".
Mr Crowley, Mr President, the excessive deficit procedure is being applied to France and it is subject to the procedure laid down in Article 104(7) of the Treaty. In accordance with its obligations to apply the Council’s recommendations within the framework of the excessive deficit procedure, the French authorities were obliged to bring their public deficit to below 3% in 2005. Last week, the French authorities notified the Commission that the public deficit at the end of 2005 was below 3%.
Over the next three weeks, by 24 April, Eurostat must analyse the figure notified by the French authorities, and will explain whether or not those figures, a deficit of 2.87%, are correct. In the event that they are – I hope that they are, although I cannot anticipate Eurostat's decision – France would have complied with the recommendations in 2005.
The French Government also intends to bring its deficit to below 3% during 2006; the European Commission takes note of this and is pleased with the French Government's intentions, but we are going to publish our spring economic forecasts on 8 May. Until then I will not be able to predict what our economic forecast will be for this year, but, without anticipating the final assessments, I believe that the budgetary situation in France is improving with regard to our forecasts a year ago, amongst other things because the French Government, and in particular the Finance Minister, Thierry Breton – whom I thank, as I did publicly the other day in Brussels – are politically committed to complying with the Stability and Growth Pact.
This is a sign of the way the renewed consensus in relation to the new Stability and Growth Pact is working. A year ago, before the revision of the Pact, we would have been unlikely to hear the French, the German, or the Italian Minister repeatedly expressing their political commitment to bring their public accounts into line with the recommendations to them from the Commission and the Council for the application of the Stability and Growth Pact.
Two years ago it would have been impossible; a year ago it was difficult. Today it is a reality, a genuine political commitment. But we still have difficult times ahead of us, because we must not be content with deficits of 2.8%. Europe, the European Union and the largest economies of the eurozone must pursue fiscal consolidation until public accounts, in the medium term, are in a situation of balance in structural terms so that we can deal with the significant challenges facing us for the future, the first of which is the consequences of the ageing of the population.
With regard to the euro, confidence in the eurozone’s economy is growing day by day, and certain indicators of confidence, such as the German IFO index, are showing fifteen-year highs. Figures on the indicators produced by the Commission services for which I am responsible were published yesterday, and they show that levels of confidence are at their highest for five years. We had not achieved such levels of confidence since the previous expansionary phase.
Our currency is remaining perfectly stable in the currency markets, in fact it is over-valued according to certain economic sectors. The euro is used in the financial markets, in the debt markets and in the capital and money markets at world level to a degree that is disproportionate to the relative weight of the eurozone’s economy within the world economy. I therefore believe that we must be vigilant, but we must also be pleased with our achievements during the first seven years of economic and monetary union."@en1
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