French Prime Minister Fillon : EU has Strong Economy and Political say on Global issues

*Paris (partly updated). At the launch of G-8 and G-20 Chairmanship by French President Sarkozy this year, his closest ally, Prime Minister François Fillon, speaking in 2 landmark Conferences here, dynamicaly and convincingly stressed both €uroZone's real Vitality, citting key Facts, and EU's will to start really playing a strong Political role in a MultiPolar and more Democratic World, still searching to find its ways out of the Global Crisis, at an Historically crucial moment, in order to forge its Future with responsibility, but without abandoning Democratic Politics to Technocrats or Markets alone.

- "Europe, 1st Economic Power in the World, has, from now on, all the necessary means in order to make its Voice heard vis a vis the U.S. and the big emerging Countries", energeticaly stressed French Prime Minister François Fillon, at the opening of 2011's International Conference on "New World, New Capitalism", with the participation of Foreign Experts, Prime Ministers, Foreign or Economy Ministers, etc., organized by the French Industry Minister, Eric Besson at the prestigious Bercy High-Tech building of the Economy and Finance Ministry, headed by Christine Lagarde, (See also other relevant "EuroFora"s NewsReports from this and other parallel events in Paris, at the National Assembly, the Presidential Elysee Palace, etc).

- "We must go further in asserting European Power in the World", the Prime Minister of the core EU Country which chairs in 2011 the G-8/G-20 concluded. "France intends for Europe to be at the Center of the New Global Governance, be it for a new Monetary World Order, for extending Financial Regulations, or for joint  efforts to stabilize Agricultural raw materials, etc.", he stressed, calling for "Lucidity and Vision, Generosity and Ambition", to make "the choice of Reason" and "Responsibility" but also "of Audacity".

    - "€uro is, unquestionably, a Strong Currency. It is the 2nd Currency in the World, and it has already become (de facto) one of the main Reserve currencies", he observed.

    Citting Facts, Fillon noted that, "all in all, €uroZone remains Solid", and "the situation of €uroZone's Public Finances, taken all together, is clearly Less Degraded than that of the United States and of Japan":

    - "This is obvious in terms of Deficit : - 6,7% of GDP for €uroZone in 2010, against -11,1% and -9,6% for USA and Japan, respectively".

    - "On Debt, also, with 84% of €uroZone's GDP in 2009, against 93% and 226% for the USA and Japan, respectively".
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    + Meanwhile, "€uro's benefits" also include "more than 10 Years of Stability of currencies", it "helped to develop a Great Market" (the largest multinational common market in the World), "it fullfilled its task on Prices' Stability" (i.e. against Inflation), and, "contrary to what some claim, it didn't act as a break against Growth", since, "between 1999-2009, the per inhabitant GDP in France progressed +2,7% in France".

    He could also add the fact that "€uroZone area Trade Balance with the rest of the World gave +5.2 Billions € Surplus in October 2010, compared with +4.8 Billions € in October 2009", i.e. up for +400 Millions € more this year. Moreover, "the EU27... Surplus for Manufactured goods rose" up to "+124.9 Billions €, compared with +112.2 Billions €", last year. The greatest augmentation is that of "EU27 Trade Surplus increase with the USA", which reached some +53 Billions € in January-September 2010, compared with almost +31 Billions € last year, (as revealed EuroStat data published on December 2010).
    
    Thus, f.ex. even in France, Exports are due to attaign a +0.2% Surplus during the 1st and 2nd Trimestre of 2011, according to INSEE, (+1.3 and +1.2%, compared to +1.1 and 1.0%), while Germany's Exports are booming up to more than +3% to +4%..                                

    *Moreover, EU Growth Return moves Faster in the EU than in the USA : EU ameliorated its Growth gaining +4.4% more between the fourth quarter of 2009 and the third quarter of 2010, compared to only +3% for the USA, (EU = -2.2% and +2.2%, USA = +0.2 and +3.2%, respectively), according to new EuroStat data, released today.

- "This Crisis is not that of €uro" itself, but "mainly a Crisis of Trust vis a vis certain Countries", rightfully stressed the French Prime Minister, (adopting a similar position with that of experienced former EU Constitutional Convention's President, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, and incoming EU Chairman, Prime Minister of Hungary, Victor Orban, etc. : See relevant "EuroFora"'s previous NewsReports from Strasbourg and Brussels, respectively).

    - Because their "Economic Models of Growth" had several "Lacunas", which were "exposed by the (Financial) Crisis", when "these States were Weakened by the (Global) Economic Crisis"(Global) Crisis", Fillon analysed.

    - F.ex. "the Drift of Public Finances in Greece - as Mr. Papandreou has just evoked - and the Debt linked to Estates in Ireland", he observed.
        
    - "Initially, they faced a Classic Budgetary Crisis, as it often happens in the Economic History, at the end of financial crisis", whose "usual consequences are that Fiscal Revenues fall down, while Public Spending augments, provoking thus an Explosion of Public Debt".

    - But, "for certain Countries, these budgetary imbalancies were aggravated by the need to absorb, at the same time, an Excessive private Debt (f.ex. +PASOK's Greece), and a Financial bulb" (f.ex. Ireland : See supra).

    + "Finally, such Difficulties stem also from a Loss of Competitivity, due to an Excessive Augmentation of Salaries' Costs, and to an uncontrolled gap of External accounts". (F.ex. in the case of the notorious Nepotist former "Socialist" Governments' Mass appointments of their fans to Public Sector jobs since the 1980ies, which provoked the Debt of 1990ies/2010ies, disguished with the help of USA's Banks, etc., in order to decide Greece's entry, sooner than deserved, inside €uroZone, so that PASOK can win the 4/2001 Elections, in exchange of closing its eyes to Turkey's controversial EU bid, even if Ankara hadn't yet fullfilled any of its commitments on Human Rights, Cyprus, Aegean Sea, Armenian Genocide, Kurdish issue, etc. : After having often abused of their Public Sector Jobs to discriminate against People with differend Political Ideas, ruined the Greek Economy, robbed its Productive Sector and/or even Poor Families' lifetime Economies, provoked €uroZone's 1st weak point, and blocked EU's Institutional development for many Years, since the 2005 "No" to EuroReferenda in France, the Netherlands, etc, these same cushy job holders -most forced to become partisans of Turkey's impopular EU bid- are now asking even for early Retirement benefits !).

     - "These skids are not a result of Single Currency ! They are the result of Inadequate Economic Policies : The consequence of Public Deficits insufficiently reduced during Expansion periods, of an unsatisfactory Bank Regulation which doesn't take into account the growing Risks, and of insufficient Monitoring of the Internal Demand", Fillon clearly distinguished. 

    + Giorgos Papandreou, current Prime Minister for Greece, indirecty but surely confirmed Fillon's analysis, (shared also by many others' : f.ex. incoming 2011 EU Chairman in office, Prime Minister of Hungary, Victor Orban, former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, etc), by obsering that the main cause of the problems faced recently by Greece, when it was dangerousy exposed vis a vis speculative Financial Markets, was not only over-Spending in the Past, but also a related phenomenon of previous Dysfonctional Governments, without Transparency, but full of Clientelism, discrimination, nepotism, clientelism, etc.    

    Papandreou could have gone even further, if he acknowledged the notorious fact that the Timming of Greece's precocious entry into €uroZone, earlier than normal, decided back on 1999-2001, was, in fact, due to a Political Deal, during former "Socialist" Governments in Germany, France, the UK, etc, to close eyes on the real financial situation, instead of asking Athens to rectify it before it enters €uroZone, (and during former "Liberal/Socialist" President Bill Clinton in the USA, which helped disguise the real Debt via a 1998-2001 Financial trick by controversial Banker "Goldman Sachs", as EU Parliament's Investigation revealed : See relevant "EuroFora"s NewsReports), in exchange of the former "Socialist" PASOK Government's acceptance of Turkey's controversial and impopular EU bid, even if Ankara hadn't fullfilled any of the Conditions on respect of Human Rights nor International Law, Cyprus, the Aegean Sea, Armenian Genocide recognition, Kurdish problem, DeMilitarisation, etc. Thus, PASOK was able to win then, with a thin margin, the 4/2001 Elections, keeping Governmental jobs for 4 more Years...

I.e., in other words, this was also a "MisGovernment" issue, and not at all a Financial problem, which provoked a "hidden" Debt in fact, not for Greece's sake, but for the sake of Turkey's controversial and impopular EU bid. - In brief : a ..."Turkey Debt", (that EU payed twice : Once by the unprecedented Institutional Blockade resulting from the "No" to the EuroReferenda in France and the Netherlands on 2005, etc. notoriously motivated mainly by People's reactions against Turkey's controversial and impopular EU bid, and twice by provoking a false impression that €uroZone would be weak in 2009/20010) !                                                         
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    + "Naturally, such skids are a Collective challenge, because our Responsibility is to set up Monitoring Mechanisms, at a European level, able to prevent those Risks", added Fillon.  "But, we shouldn't forget 2 things", he underlined :

a) "Public Finances' skid (as in PASOK's Greece), real Estate and Credit Bulbs' (as in Ireland), erosion of Competitivity", etc., "didn't touch only upon certain €uroZone Countries".  On the contrary, "Other (i.e. Non-€uro) Countries, elsewhere, have met these kind of phenomena, sometimes even in greater dimensions", he pointed out.

b) "For the €uroZone Countries whose policies were revealed inadequat, adjustments became inevitable. But we shouldn't let anyone believe that it might  go otherwise if they didn't belong to €uroZone : No Country facing a serious Crisis of its Sovereign Debt, ever escaped from a Compression of its purchasing power and its Internal Demand", he observed.
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    + "However, we shouldn't, no more, neglect the fact that the recent Crisis revealed some Organisational Insufficiencies", he acknowledged. In particular, "the Monitoring of €uroZone's States showed obvious Lacunas, resulting into dangerous Divergences of Competitivity between Member States. And we saw that €uroZone didn't dispose any Mecanism for Financial Stabilization", he denounced.

- But, "the Reactivity of €uroZone, vis a vis these lacunas, was very Strong", the French Prime Minister stressed :  In particular, "the Dimension of the Decisions which were taken in less than 1 Year", "is not really taken into account by those who criticize, here or there, the way in which Europe reacted to the Crisis" :

    1) Starting by "facing the Crisis (provoked by) the "Greek" Sovereign Debt, the EU adoptes a massive Help Program with 110 Billions €, on the Condition of a Budgetary Adjustment Program that Greece continues to apply, in a resolute and courageous way".

    2) "Afterwards, €uroZone set up a European Fund for Financial Stabilization, with a potential amount of 440 Billions €, to whom must be added also 60 Billions € of EU Funds, and 250 Billions € brought in by the IMF", (i.e. a total of 750 Billions €).  "This provisionary Mechanism, running for 3 Years, has just been used for Ireland, accompagnied by Strict Budgetary Measures by the Irish Government", he observed.

    3) "Finally, the European Central Bank (ECB) played its role by guaranteing Markets' Liquidity, and by keeping its program of re-buying Sovereign Bonds, which ensures that the Monetary Policy will function well, and reassures Markets", he noted. "In exchange", ECB "asks for strong Commitments by the States on the Reduction of Deficits, both at a National and at a European levels".

=> Thus, "Crisis Management was, undeniably, a Success", he concluded. + "But it's not enough : Structural Measures were necessary, and even there, €uroZone proved its capacity to react" , he went on to say :

    4) "EU Council adopted a series of Rules, which strengthen the Monitoring of Public Accounts, of Public Debt, and of developments of Macroeconomic imbalancies which might affect €uroZone, in order to face the Crisis of Trust which hits some €uroZone Countries", (f.ex. Greece, Ireland, Portugal, etc). "These Rules are a Major Step Forward in the Integration of €uroZone Countries, because, well beyond the Budgetary issues, it's the question of Economic imbalancies inside the Zone, which will be closely monitored. These Rules will soon be transposed into Legislative texts", Fillon underlined.

    5) "In parallel, we were equiped with Permanent Instruments of Crisis' Management", he added. "EuroZone decided to create a Permanent Mechanism for Financial Stabilization, which will take over from the Fund created for 3 years (See supra), starting from June 2013". "The New Mechanism, officially enshrined in the (EU) Treaty, will, thus, be based on Solid Legal Foundations, made possible by the Lisbon Treaty's revision, already launched from December 2010", (See relevant "EuroFora"s NewsReports, from Freiburg, Strasbourg and Brussels, 12/2010).

In consequence, "at an Institutional level, EU's and €uroZone's Capacity to react and adapt itself, proved, thus, to be unquestionable", he concluded.
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    + Meanwhile, "at the level of Economy, we already start to see some Encouraging signals that imbalancies are being absorbed":

F.ex., "Ireland won back, these last 2 years, an important part of its lost Competitivity. In Spain, Budgetary Deficits and the Current Accounts' Balance are being absorbed". While, "all European Countries are due to benefit from the Renewal of Dynamism of Germany's Internal Demand", he observed.
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    + But "I don't think" that everything necessary has been already done", the French Prime Minister went on to add :

    - "At first, we have still to run far enough so that the Economic Adjustments can erase the imbalances which had been provoked inside €uroZone", (on Competitivity and Financial Stabilization : See supra).

    - "Then, Europe  gives, sometimes, an impression to be in delay vis a vis Markets, to react Efficiently to Immediate Threats, but without having a Long-term Plan", he observed.  

"Regarding these findings, I see 3 main Axes", Fillon highlighted for the Future :  
                                                                                                                                                                                          
1) "The First, is to reinforce €uroZone's Cohesion" :

- "A Solid Monetary Union needs careful Monitoring on Budgets, but also a minimal Convergence on Fiscal, or even Social matters", he added, obviously pointing at the direction spearheaded by the December 2010 Sarkozy-Merkel Franco-German Summit in Freiburg, and largely agreed by the subsesquent EU Summit in Brussels (See "EuroFora"'s NewsReports from both events, on the spots). "This will be the Great Issue during the next Months and next Years", he foresaw.

- "Issues of Covergence and Harmonization will be imposed at the Top level of European Priorities, after this Crisis, including in areas ignored for a long time, because of Political sensitivities", he warned.

    It's important to note that, in fact, the French Prime Minister pointed at an obviously Fundamental issue which had already been highlighted as early as since ECB's 10th Anniversary Summit, back on June 2008 at Frankfurt (Germany : i.e.  already BEFORE the Global Crisis spills over from the USA to the EU), by Statements and publications of findings by IMF's Head of Mission for Europe, Alessandro Leipold, in Replies he gave to "EuroFora"'s co-Founder's questions at a Press Conference there, after meeting with EuroGroup's President Jean-Claude Juncker, where he agreed, inter alia, that "the Main" Message" from the 2008 IMF's Report on EU's Economy was that it needed to focus now on better building its internal "Cohesion".


2) But "we must also advance further in Europe's support to Growth and Employment : The way out of the (Global) Crisis can only be found by a Return of Growth", he added, stressing that "this is also a Key (factor) for our Citizens' adhesion to the European Idea".

+ Adding orally at Bercy a remark going beyond his initial Draft Text, Fillon observed that "Markets cannot do everything alone". Even "in the USA, Markets weren't always the Motor of Technological Innovations. And now, in China, it obviously isn't just the internal Market which orientates Industrial Growth. While in Euroe, we have some succesful examples of the fact that, when necessary, States must be also actively involved in order to stimulate Innovation and Competitivity".

.- "The Good Results recently marked in certain European Countries show that we are right to continue to focus on Industry, Technology, Excellence : Europe must support Research, Innovation, and Industrial Competitivity", the French Prime Minister underlined.- For this purpose, "we must reorientate the European Programs of Research in order to maximise their effects on Industry. That's why France proposes to launch a European Fund for Patents and a European Fund of Venture-Capital", Fillon anounced.

Significantly, the move was done just a day before a Report on "European Economic Governance", drafted by MEP Constance Le Grip and MP Henri Plagnol, was officially presented to President Sarkozy at Elysée Palace, concluding in favor of a "Concentric Circles" approach for EU's development, starting by Franco-German moves and mainly by the creation of a pioneer Franco-German Fund for Scientific Research - Technological Innovation, due to be progressively enlarged also to other willing €uroZone and afterwards EU Member Countries.

- "We must also Measure carefully the impact of New European Regulations on Businesses' Competitivity". Moreover, "the target for Growth and Employment must be integrated in Europe's Trade and Competition Policies", he added.


3) "Finally, we must go further in asserting European Power in the World", concluded the French Prime Minister.

- "With a strong Currency and a European Central Bank of world-wide credibility, with Renovated Institutions and a Permanent EU Council's President (currently Herman Van Rompoy), with a new European Service of External Action prepared, (etc), Europe, as 1st World Economic Power, has, from now on, the means to make its Voice heard vis a vis America and Big Emerging Countries", he stressed.

In this context, and starting from the present, 2011 French Presidency of the G-8 and G-20, "France intends for Europe to be at the Center of the New Global Governance", Fillon concluded, pointing, in particular, to "the creation of a New World Monetary Order, the extension of the Global Financial Regulations, or to the joint efforts to Stabilize Raw Materials' prices in Energy and Food", etc. (See "EuroFora"s separate NewsReports from various relevant events in Paris, concerning the First moves of the French G8 - G20 Presidency).

We should not diminish, nor dramatize the wide Horizon of Changes due, but advance with lucidity, Vision, Generority and Ambition, choosing Reason, Responsibility and Boldness, Fillon concluded.

+ But, at the same time, the French Prime Minister, speaking afterwards at another Colloquy, organised under the heading  : - "Politics are a matter of Will", in the French National Assembly by its President, Bernard Accoyer, in the Memory of International Labour Organisation's Chairman, Philippe Seguin, a "social Gaullist",  AN's and Court of Auditor's former President, longtime Minister, etc., made it clear that, speaking of Europe's role in the World, he meant a "Political Europe", according to President Sarkozy's 2007-2009 twice victorious Electoral speeches, both at National and EU level :

- "Be Modern is not be without Memory", Fillon stressed from the outset, making a "link between the Past and the Future", on this occasion. As Seguin did,  we should not trust those who want to eliminate Politics", but, on the contrary, "defend" them "in front of false substitutes : Spectacle's domination, Technocracy, or Intimidation by Economic reasoning", etc., "fighting against Conformisms" which "disposess Citizens from their own capacity to Think, Decide and Choose, in full conscience, the Perspectives of their Lives", because "Politics cannot be delegated, can't be exerted by procurement, cannot be alienated", as he described Seguin's "struggle not against Europe, but against weakening Politics".

- "Sovereignity belongs to the People", and "Citizens' participation" must be enhanced, he stressed in this regard, warning also against the "Misleading lights of Medias" :"Globalization" would be "a Risk, if it meant to subordinate Politics to Economy, taken as an absolute", or "renounce to Politics by taking the World Order as it is" at a moment or another, Fillon criticized, pointing, on the contrary, towards President "Nicolas Sarkozy's, jointly with former British PM Gordon Brown, initiative to create the G20 of Heads of State/Government, as a First Step towards a Political Globalization, where Nations comme together in order to act, instead of being only affected by the course of events".

- Calling to "work for the Ambition of a Political Europe", the French Prime Minister stressed that "Europe means something only if it's a Political project, i.e., as Seguin said, "a big vision by which the Peoples act in History".

- "Europe should be such an instrument for (People's) Sovereignity", by "responding to current Challenges with a Political Will, which is not something abstract, but stems from the Nations which compose Europe, and the Heads of State and Government Elected by these Nations' Citizens", he stressed.

- "By challenging Europe, the 2 stages of the (Global) Crisis, (Economic/Financial, and Debts' : See supra), ... revealed that it's impossible to abandon People's fate in a kind of "Automatic Pilote", and "incited those Responsible for the European Nations to take over the Guiding" tools. "Because History has not ended, and reality reserves more of those moments when Human Societies need to Debate and take hard Decisions, if they want to stay free to guide their fate".

"Seguin admired the way Sarkozy, during his EU Presidency (2008) had enobled Politics against some kind of impotency", when, "facing Crisis, France played a decisive role in Europe's capacity to react", in front of "Turmoils and Urgency, by launching a series of Decision-taking without any precedent in the (European) Continent", Fillon reminded, (obviously pointing at the August 2008 succesful move to stop War between Russia and Georgia, and at the October 2008 and November 2008 creations of the 1st in History Heads of State/Government €uroZone and G-20 Summits, in Paris and Washington, respectively, to start struggling against the Global Crisis).

Noting also the potential importance of "a Great Europe, to which Russia must be associated", while also being "Open to the Mediterranean", and even "to Quebec" (Canada) and other "projects in the World", the French Prime Minister stressed that even if only "the Future will tell us if current developments will respond to (the) wish... to see a Political Europe emerge", "at least, what is certain, is that Mentalities changed and that the need to cross New Stages is, today, largely felt".

- "This is the meaning", f.ex.  of "the Idea for a progressive Convergence inside €uroZone, in Fiscal and Social issues ; for the need to make Europe a Motor of Growth and Employment, through Research, Innovation and Industrial Competitivity", while also "Reducing (other) Spending and Public Debt", as "a condition for Strong and Respected, Sovereign States, Free to decide their fate", while also "keeping the line of Social Cohesion", by "searching to combine Economic with Social Interests, reconciling Productivity and Social Dialogue, also by imposing some Ethics on a Capitalism whose legitimity is undermined by some errors".

+ As well as "for the Priorities that France will defend at the Head of G-20 this Year : Reform World's Monetary system ; Counter extreme volatility of Raw Materials' prices (such as Energy, Food, etc) ; Ameliorate Global Governance ; favor Development of Poorest Countries and pay greater attention to the Social dimension of Globalization", (as Seguin ambitioned inside ILO), he added.

- "Assertaining Europe's Power in the World (See supra), and all these Ambitions that we have for Europe .. determine, today, the Agenda of the following Months and Years", Fillon concluded, calling to feel "Free and Courageous", as long as "Politics' Dignity .. are in the hands of Citizens".