7/28/2019 Un ancien ministre franais - Oubliez les tats-Unis dEurope

1/3

Un ancien ministre franais :

Oubliez les tats-Unis dEurope

Published on EurActiv (http://www.euractiv.com)Source URL:http://www.euractiv.com/node/519253

Published: 22 April 2013

EXCLUSIF/ LUnion europenne ne recevra jamais suffisamment desoutien public pour le fdralisme et devrait donc abandonner lidedun super-tat inspir des tats-Unis, a dclar lancien ministrefranais socialiste influent Hubert Vdrine.

Background

European leaders have agreed to discuss plans for deeper economicintegration as part of their longer term plans to solve the ongoing debt crisisin the euro area.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy will present a report on28 June exploring ways to deepen economic integration, including thesubject of Eurobonds, which would pool part of European debt and reducethe borrowing costs of fragile economies like Spain or Italy.

France wants Eurobonds introduced quickly but Germany opposes this,saying it could consider them only after a new stage in the EU's fiscal andeconomic integration. The European Central Bank has argued along thesame line.

Germans will never foot the bill and other Europeans will not accept the lossof sovereignty that a supranational state would entail, Vdrinetold EurActiv.fron the margins of the Organisation for Econonic Co-operation and Developments New World Forum in Paris.

Vdrine suggested that a 'grand bargain' where Germany bailed outstruggling European economies in exchange for more solidarity wouldnever gain traction.

"For the Germans, it would mean that the entire euro zone is under Germancontrol - of the Bundestag and the Court of Karlsruhe. For others, it wouldmean that Germany must pay for countries in difficulty."

http://www.euractiv.com/http://www.euractiv.com/node/519253http://www.euractiv.fr/institutions/interview/abandonnons-le-saut-federal-et-ne-nous-comparons-pas-aux-etats-unis-18848.htmlhttp://www.euractiv.com/http://www.euractiv.com/node/519253http://www.euractiv.fr/institutions/interview/abandonnons-le-saut-federal-et-ne-nous-comparons-pas-aux-etats-unis-18848.html

7/28/2019 Un ancien ministre franais - Oubliez les tats-Unis dEurope

2/3

I do not believe for a second in a supranational vision, where the nation-states transfer their competencies to a higher level and where the states willbe reduced to regions. The European people will never accept that. To startwith Germany."

"The federal leap means nothing, Vdrine said.

United States of Europe

Lets abandon this perspective - this will discourage the 0.01% of thepeople who are federalist - and let us not compare ourselves to the UnitedStates, he said.

When the Americans created the United States, they brought togetherAmericans. The same when Bismarck brought together the Germans. As

General de Gaulle said, you dont make an omelette with hard-boiled eggs.

Vdrine, 65, served as foreign minister to the government of Lionel Jospinfrom 1997 to 2002. A Socialist, he was tipped for a senior role underFranois Hollande in 2012 but the French president opted for a youngercabinet.

Vdrine admitted that the solution to the eurozone crisis had mostly beendriven by Northern Europe. But the common political economy should notbe reduced to the transmission of German demands to other countries, hesaid.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has mooted in interviews the idea of apolitical union where countries ceded more sovereignty as a solution tosave the euro currency

We need more Europe, we need not only a monetary union, but we alsoneed a so-called fiscal union, in other words more joint budget policy,Merkel was quoted as saying June last year.

France so far has been reluctant to take a leap towards federalism but mayadvocate ceding some fiscal control to Germany in exchange for Eurobondsand debt-pooling under a grand bargain. For Germany that would be theend point of a fiscal union.

http://www.euractiv.com/priorities/merkel-calls-political-union-sav-news-513201http://www.euractiv.com/priorities/merkel-calls-political-union-sav-news-513201http://www.euractiv.com/priorities/merkel-calls-political-union-sav-news-513201http://www.euractiv.com/priorities/merkel-calls-political-union-sav-news-513201

7/28/2019 Un ancien ministre franais - Oubliez les tats-Unis dEurope

3/3