(A little more from a long, detailed article):
... He insisted France would "tirelessly" champion the growth agenda – "this compromise between getting out of debt and growth" – without questioning the need for budget discipline, which had been made "absolutely necessary" by the sovereign debt crisis. "Today, recession is as big a threat as deficits."
Brits on the backfoot
Hollande said his approach was "a Europe that advances at varying speeds, with different circles. We could call them 'avant garde', 'precursor states', the 'core' – names don't matter, it's the idea that counts." This meant strengthening the regular meetings of eurozone governments.
. He said the leaders of other countries intending to join the single currency could also take part in his proposed monthly summits of eurozone national leaders, but on less than equal terms, as "associates". But, in an implicit nod to David Cameron and other non-euro zone countries not to interfere if they were standing outside, he added: "Certain countries don't want to join : that's their choice. But why should they come telling us how the eurozone should be run? It's a pretension I hear but that I don't think meets the need for coherence."
Asked if he would risk seeing Britain leave Europe, Hollande said: "I would like a UK fully engaged in Europe, but I can't decide in place of the British. I see that for the moment they want to be more in retreat. The British are tied by the accords they have signed up to. They can't detach from them. At least they have the merit of clarity. They aren't in the eurozone or budgetary union. I don't intend to force them."
The suggestion that Britain couldn't wriggle out of deals it had signed up to could be seen in London as a signal that it would not be easy for the UK to renegotiate binding European commitments in a way Cameron would like to...
/...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/17/francois-hollande-angela-merkel-austerity
5 replies
Hollande fires warning shot at Merkel over austerity on eve of EU summit (Original post)
Overseas (10,865 posts) 
