The Renew group in the European Parliament might not agree on a joint position on reforming EU fiscal rules, German FDP spokesperson Michael Georg Link said on Thursday, amid a split between the group’s German and French delegations, FDP and Renaissance.
Even though Renew aims to approve a joint position paper on the Commission’s proposal for a reform of the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact on Monday, the group remains divided on how strict or flexible the bloc’s debt rules should be, with the French and German delegations leading the two opposing sides.
“A 100% joint position is something you do not see very often anyway within a broad group like Renew,” Link said after he would not confirm whether he was optimistic about the group finding an agreement in time when asked by EURACTIV.
“But we are working on developing an understanding for each other,” he added.
According to the FDP, the Commission’s reform proposal leaves too much leeway to member states and the EU executive itself regarding fiscal discipline as it foresees country-specific debt reduction plans.
Meanwhile, the French liberals, President Emmanuel Macron’s party Renaissance, welcomes individual plans but calls for more rather than less flexibility.
This dissent “is actually quite natural since we have different starting points,” Link said.
But fiscal policy is not the only area in which German and French liberals disagree, said Link, citing foreign policy as another example. Recently, Macron alienated Germany and other partners with contentious remarks on China and Taiwan.
Still, the situation “shows the strength of the Franco-German relationship that we are able to say: we disagree, and still think about how we can manage together,” he added.
(Julia Dahm | EURACTIV.de)
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