Germany Openly Hostile To Putting Frenchman In Charge Of European Financial Affairs

Current finance minister Sapin, perhaps unsurprisingly, has admitted that France will miss EU deficit targets and needs more time to rein in public finances – proclaiming, as Reuters reports, that it may take until 2017 to bring it in line. Germany’s response “nein, nein, nein” with Merkel demanding EU nations stick to commitments (rejecting any plans to ‘bend rules’) and Schaeuble blasting that Germany is “certain France is aware of its responsibilities.” But the real stunner is that as France shows its utter ineptitude in managing an economy, EU President Juncker has placed former French finance minister Moscovici in charge of Europe’s taxes and finances. German lawmakers exclaimed this is “not a wise personnel decision.” The core splinters…
France is failing hard… (as Reuters reports)
France announced on Wednesday it was breaking the latest in a long line of promises to European Union partners to cut its public deficit, conceding it now would take until 2017 to bring its finances in line with EU rules. The statement by Finance Minister Michel Sapin follows weeks of hints by Paris that weakness in the euro zone’s second largest economy would prevent it bringing the deficit below the EU ceiling of three percent of output next year as promised.
Sapin insisted France was not seeking to change or suspend the rules but wanted the deteriorating outlook for growth and inflation this year and next to be taken into account.
Paris has led calls for a more flexible interpretation of EU budget regulations along with Italy,

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 09/10/2014.