If Macron can’t raise France’s retirement age, Europe’s fiscal union is doomed
Macron touted a grand bargain with Berlin when he burst onto the European scene in 2017. He would undertake two central tasks: he would rein in France’s fiscal deficits after 11 years in breach of the EU’s Stability Pact; and he would pull his country out of its complacent reverie with a French version of Germany’s Hartz IV reforms.
In return, Berlin would again accept Paris as an equal partner in economic condominium, or so he hoped. The Germans would finally drop their resistance to a Transferunion. They would allow permanent joint debt issuance and an EU treasury, the necessary foundation for the survival of the euro over the long run.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Telegraph 3 February 2023
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