"No more budget cut" - France openly defies Brussels' policy

[hellheaven1987]

France submits its annual budget to Brussels on Wednesday, disregarding calls from EU officials to introduce more cuts.

With left-wing MPs deeply unhappy over austerity, President Francois Hollande's government looks set not only for a rebuttal from the EU but for a rebellion in the National Assembly in Paris as well.

Whatever hopes the officials in Brussels had of softening the French stance, these have been dashed.

No, France will not review its annual budget for 2015.

"The European Commission doesn't have the power to 'reject' or 'censure' the budget," Finance Minister Michel Sapin said earlier this week. "Here, sovereignty belongs to the parliament."

His words echoed those of Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who said France was "a big country that should be respected". In other words, nothing will persuade France to change its plans.

Earlier this month France put forward an annual budget that included 21bn euros (£17bn; $27bn) of cuts - but admitted it would miss its EU deficit target of 3% of GDP for the third time.

Source

French only tries to be brave in strange time; regardless, I wonder whether this would give other members an excuse to stop the general budget cut policy in Europe, and hence discredit Brussels and EU as whole.

[Basil II the B.S]

Hollande needs to reward his voters somehow and the French budget is out of control. Socialists failing, nothing new here.

Proof:
Economics Nobel laureate tells France to 'downsize the state'

http://www.france24.com/en/20141013-...source=twitter

[Lord of Nihilism]

Vive la France. I've said it before and I'll say it now; France is the premiere power within the EU and Europe and not even the Germans can force France to submit. Us Frenchmen have been at war for centuries and thus we're no strangers to conflict and hardship, so the Germans can complain all they want that France isn't following the rules that were set by the Germans, but the fact remains that France decides French laws and budgets...not German men and women in Berlin.


With that being said, Hollande needs to go simply because he's not suitable to lead France as evident by his economic policies.

EDIT:" spelling errors.

[Pielstick]

Ironic perhaps that at the very same time France tells Brussels that French government spending is a sovereign French matter.....

....Manuel Valls tells the UK it will not be allowed to place any limits or restrictions on EU migrants entering the UK.


What's good for the goose...

[Kaiser Nonsense]

Finally someone with some balls to defy this demonic EU.

[Dromikaites]

The real defiance would have been to cut nothing.

21 billion euro budget cuts are BIG cuts by all standards, even though they fail to keep the budget deficit below the 3% deficit mark.

The French might be "defiant" but not suicidal. Not having cut those 21 billions would have guaranteed a collapse.

[Knight of Heaven]

That is irrelevant, you apply austerity acording to your possibilities, that is the point, otherwise you squeeze everything out without looking at the consequences, as it is happening in Greece and Portugal.
Being France has its benefits evidently so.

[Nicov55]

Hollande needs to reward his voters somehow and the French budget is out of control. Socialists failing, nothing new here.

Proof:
Economics Nobel laureate tells France to 'downsize the state'

http://www.france24.com/en/20141013-...source=twitter

Socialism in France is nothing more than taking money from those who work hard and create wealth in order to give it to a vast clientele of civil servants, associations of any kind spreading their doxa in schools, suburbs, media and other parasites.
The good thing is that a majority everyday more important of us are seeing clearly the truth and i have good hopes that with their huge failure coming, we will finally be able to get rid of these people once and for all.

[Costin_Razvan]

The problem with the EU is that Brusseles is trying to rule it as if it was some centralized state when it lacks the power do so. The arrogance is pissing people off.

I support the EU, and I do want a European State, but to hell with Brusseles, The Hague, Strasbourg and the European Court of Human Right.

[Nicov55]

The problem with the EU is that Brusseles is trying to rule it as if it was some centralized state when it lacks the power do so. The arrogance is pissing people off.

I support the EU, and I do want a European State, but to hell with Brusseles, The Hague, Strasbourg and the European Court of Human Right.

A common currency whithout a common fiscal, social policy and legislation is doomed from the start.

[The Wandering Storyteller]

Vive la France. I've said it before and I'll say it now; France is the premiere power within the EU and Europe and not even the Germans can force France to submit. Us Frenchmen have been at war for centuries and thus we're no strangers to conflict and hardship, so the Germans can complain all they want that France isn't following the rules that were set by the Germans, but the fact remains that France decides French laws and budgets...not German men and women in Berlin.


With that being said, Hollande needs to go simply because he's not suitable to lead France as evident by his economic policies.

EDIT:" spelling errors.

If its one thing I read about the French: Leadership automactially comes to the French. If you can lead you are strong,if weak you are not fit to lead.

[Adar]

A common currency whithout a common fiscal, social policy and legislation is doomed from the start.

The common currency is the Euro, not the EU.

[Dromikaites]

The 3% deficit rule is derived from the accumulated experience of the last 200 years. Countries which ran such deficits for too long ended up in serious trouble.

That means responsible members of any government, either in Europe or anywhere else in the World should refrain from spending more than it can collect from taxes, especially going well above 3% more.

The French are fully aware they are going down the drain unless they bring the government spending down. Which is why they cut 21 billions off this year.

The fact 21 billion Euros cut doesn't bring their government spending below the 3% mark only shows how badly the French government has been overspending since the early '90s.

The fact they couldn't get below the 3% threshold in spite of cutting off 21 billions is not a sign of "defiance" or a middle finger shown to Brussels. It is a sign of how screwed up is their whole system of spending taxpayers' money.

Getting within the 3% limit would have meant large layoffs of government employees, sending them to a labor market where no jobs are around. Which is also a consequence of how the governments of the last 20+ years have handled the French economy.

By cutting off "only" 21 billions the French didn't tell "Brussels" to shove it. They told everybody "we cannot lay off more public servants because we have no jobs for them in the private sector".

If they wanted to show "Brussels" the middle finger they would have cut nothing. Or they could have increased the spending by 21 billion Euro.

The French themselves aren't proud of the situation they're in, so why would somebody else applaud "France standing up to Brussels"?!

Later Edit:

It is not a matter of "France can do it and get away with it, but little country X cannot". France simply chose between two evils. This time next year France might be belly up for not cutting deeper.

In general "Little country X" cannot do it because "little country X" is little. Meaning it has a much smaller economy and therefore can go under faster unless it is propped up by the international lenders.

And those lenders aren't too keen to continue to lend money to somebody who shows no intention to cut down on government spending. Government spending is OK for the international lenders if the government is able to collect the money it owes to those lenders. If the government cannot collect, the lenders don't get paid. So they don't lend.

The difference between "Little country X" and France is that if the sources of international funding go dry on France, the French hope they have a slightly higher chance to survive on the strength of their national economy than "Little country X". But they might be proven wrong.

Little country X usually doesn't want to take such a high-stakes gamble and tightens the belt till it almost cannot breath anymore.

It is not a matter of double standards, it is a matter of higher vulnerability due to the smaller size.

[Tiberios]

Ohh the hypocrisy.

[justicar5]

The problem with the EU is that Brusseles is trying to rule it as if it was some centralized state when it lacks the power do so. The arrogance is pissing people off.

I support the EU, and I do want a European State, but to hell with Brusseles, The Hague, Strasbourg and the European Court of Human Right.

ECHR Is not an EU organisation. Never has been.

[Nicov55]

ICJ is a UN branch, not EU.

[Humanoid293]

[...]so the Germans can complain all they want that France isn't following the rules that were set by the Germans, but the fact remains that France decides French laws and budgets...not German men and women in Berlin.[...]

I would be interested in learning where you got the notion "German men and women in Berlin" would decide French laws and budgets from.

Apart from that, where does the french budget go to ?

[Nicov55]

I would be interested in learning where you got the notion "German men and women in Berlin" would decide French laws and budgets from. ?

Typical statement from the left wing parties in France; unable to understand the world we live in and certainly not willing to do any reform that would "hurt" their clientele. So they have to blame someone, the Germans, the Eu, big businesses and so on...

Apart from that, where does the french budget go to? ?

Mostly social policies: social security system, unemployment benefit, housing subsidy and so on...
Also the national Ministry of education: totally uneficient crypto marxist bureaucratic hell in the exclusive service of it's employees and certainly not the students.

After you've paid for all that which i may resume with the word "socialism", there is of course nothing left for investment. The same investment they are now asking from the EU...

[Thorn777]

A common currency whithout a common fiscal, social policy and legislation is doomed from the start.

An economic system that needs annual 3% GDP growth in order to sustain a balanced budget is doomed from the start. Spescially when that system is in the hands of a foreign power calling the ratings, can print themselves as much as they like while exporting their inflation by such things as underwriting every single Euro by 70% $'s and by safely funneling the many $'s to import back into the wallstreet-recycling system and as such simply growing because of buying on debt.

We need to get away from that. Everything else is secondary and irrelavant if you stay with this nonsense.

[Portuguese Rebel]

As a portuguese fellow i find this kinda amusing... When Greece, Portugal and Ireland were in trouble (Portugal and Ireland seem a little better, Greece... doesn't seem so) the larger countries were all in it for squeezing the hell out of the state economy and starve everyone if needed be. Then, bigger countries start to get into trouble as well and all of the sudden there are vitals to the social state that cannot be dealt away with and the cuts must be done with careful planning. Now, France is dealing with the problem and they are hesitant in doing what they were telling us to do!

Yeah, goes to show that it is much easier to demand sacrifices than to ask them for others. And do take note that the average French is much richer than the average Portuguese and will never be in the same kind of problems.