Germans irked as Hollande says EU cannot dictate French reforms
French President Francois Hollande has angered Germany’s ruling conservatives with his comment that the EU executive cannot “dictate” reforms to member states.
President Francois Hollande has pledged to carry out long overdue reforms of France’s pension system and labour markets but said it was up to Paris, not the European Commission, to determine how they are implemented.
At a joint news conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Hollande defended his comment that the EU executive cannot “dictate” reforms to member states - a defiant, nationalist tone that angered Germany’s ruling conservatives.
The two leaders agreed to propose that the 17-nation euro zone appoint a full-time president and hold more frequent summits to coordinate economic policy. They also promised to speed up the disbursement of 6 billion euros in EU funds to fight youth unemployment.
Hollande said France would stick to its objective of balancing its budget in structural terms by 2017 and meet new interim targets set by Brussels, but he bristled at detailed suggestions from the Commission at what to do or avoid.
“The details, procedures and way of going about this are the responsibility of the government and the state, otherwise there would be no national sovereignty,” the French leader said.
“There must be sovereignty over the implementation. The Commission makes recommendations, it does not say in place of the member states what they must do.”