ORIGINAL FRENCH ARTICLE: Déficit Les députés veulent exclure de la règle des 3 % certaines dépenses publiques
by L’Humanité
Translated Saturday 11 July 2015, by
The European treaties impose a sacred rule of maintaining public deficit below the level of three percent of GDP. Without questioning this tenet, the National Assembly adopted a European resolution proposal backed by Marie-Françoise Bechtel
The European treaties impose a sacred rule of maintaining public deficit below the level of three percent of GDP. Without questioning this tenet, the National Assembly adopted a European resolution proposal backed by Marie-Françoise Bechtel (a Jean-Pierre Chevènement supporter, allied to the PS) committing the government to hold talks with a view to exclude certain public expenditure from the given calculation. This would apply to investment in projects co-financed by the European Union, including states subject to procedure for excessive deficit. It would also apply to expense incurred on external military operations, engaged under UN mandate and relating to European defence. The PS, the Radical Party of the Left and the Ecologists voted for the resolution, whilst the Left Front abstained, judging the proposal too weak after passing through committee, notably because “it no longer calls for renegotiation of the TSCG”. [1]
[1] The TSCG, now known as the European Fiscal Compact, is the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union. Its aim is to ensure that Eurozone governments’ finances are balanced.