Tag Archive - euro zone
July 27, 2010
France and Germany urged the European Union on Wednesday to impose tougher sanctions on serial budget deficit offenders, including stripping them of their voting rights in the euro zone. The Franco-German proposal, made in a joint letter and approved by a French cabinet meeting attended by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, ...
June 29, 2010
Under pressure from anxious lenders, the French government took steps on Wednesday to help reassure markets about its creditworthiness, announcing that it would raise the retirement age and increase income taxes on the rich to help rein in its budget deficit. And the Spanish government, also facing concerned investors, proposed loosening ...
June 22, 2010
French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde repeated on Sunday that France had no revisions to make to its gross domestic product (GDP) forecasts and the country's sovereign debt rating was not under threat. Revisions to growth forecasts, if any, would be made only after mid-August and more likely at the beginning of ...
June 18, 2010
Meeting in Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy stressed their desire to speak with one voice in Europe, pledging to tighten policy coordination and improve budget discipline to contain an ongoing debt crisis. "More than ever, Germany and France are determined to talk with one voice, to adopt common ...
June 3, 2010
France reaffirmed a longstanding call for a formal economic government of the 16-nation euro area, which has aroused German suspicions in the part of an attempt to undermine the independence of the European Central Bank. The European Commission defended to trade unionists the need for austerity measures to curb public debt ...
June 1, 2010
Unlike German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has expressed her belief that the euro is a solid, credible currency, and has ruled out any plans to impose a ban on the naked short selling of euro zone government bonds in France. Finance Minister Lagarde has confirmed that France ...
May 28, 2010
A senior minister signalled on Wednesday that France will have to raise its retirement age, a day before unions take to the streets in protests against expected changes to the country's costly pension system. Labour Minister Eric Woerth said after a regular weekly cabinet meeting that France's current retirement age of ...
May 27, 2010
Germany and France have agreed to coordinate efforts to support the euro zone and the single currency and prepare for upcoming summits together, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said through a spokesman on Thursday. The move to bolster cooperation between the European Union's two economic and political heavyweights follows Berlin's unilateral decision ...
April 14, 2010
France and Germany traditionally have been the “motor” of the European Union, but relations between the two countries are badly strained over the Greek debt crisis, which is just the latest example of a new German willingness to resist the demands of Europe and assert its self-interest under Chancellor Angela ...
April 13, 2010
The leaders of France and Italy will enhance their growing cooperation in the nuclear sector at a meeting on Friday where they are also due to discuss the mounting debt crisis hanging over the euro zone. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will build on an accord ...
