More flexibility is needed, it’s true, but we shouldn’t forget those who get left behind by this model. And the level of France’s public debt? On the budgetary front, France still faces a predicament. Its deficit is falling, but mainly because the economy is growing again. If the economic climate changes, where will the room for manoeuvre be?
It’s now high time that France, the second-largest economy in the euro area, let go of the ECB’s monetary policy. What institutional reforms will be needed to consolidate the euro area? That’s a matter for the heads of state and government. For a long time I have favoured the establishment of a euro area finance ministry.