France favors a “stronger organization” behind the euro led by “a vanguard of countries,” French President Francois Hollande said in an interview published yesterday.
In the past week “the European spirit prevailed” in addressing the Greek crisis, he told the weekly Journal du Dimanche.
“But we cannot stand still,” Hollande said, in the interview published alongside a profile of Jacques Delors, the former head of the European Commission.
Delors, a former French economics and finance minister who turns 90 today, was one of the architects of the euro.
“I have proposed taking up Jacques Delors’ idea about euro government, with the addition of a specific budget and a parliament to ensure democratic control,” Hollande said.
His remarks touched on what analysts have seen as a major flaw in the euro.
Under 1992’s Maastricht Treaty, countries that share a common currency must obey rules on borrowing and deficit spending.
However, the Greek crisis saw one of the 19 eurozone members notch up successive worsening deficits and amass a mountain of debt. The problems were only addressed by bailouts from the European institutions and the IMF.
Critics say the problem stems from a lack of centralized control over national fiscal policies, which remain jealously guarded areas of sovereignty.
In 2011, Delors said the crisis facing the euro required member states either to accept greater economic cooperation or a transfer of more national powers to the EU’s center.
Hollande did not spell out his proposals in the interview, but said it was time to overhaul the euro’s governance.
“Sharing a currency is far more than wanting [economic] convergence,” he said.
“It’s a choice that 19 countries have made, because it was in their interest. No government, by the way, has taken the responsibility of leaving” the euro since its creation, he said. “This choice calls for strengthened organization and, among the countries which will decide it, a vanguard.”
“France is willing to take part because, as Jacques Delors showed, the country becomes greater when it takes the initiative in Europe,” he added.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of