ECB chief blames France and Germany
(21 June 2010 – Europe) Jean-Claude Trichet, the chief of the European Central Bank, has hurled accusations at France and Germany, saying they set a poor fiscal example therefore paving the way for the debt crisis in the eurozone.
Mr Trichet told Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper, that by compromising the European Union's Stability and Growth Pact in 2004, the powerhouses had allowed budgetary discipline to slacken.
I wish the German public had reacted with the same indignation to the breach of the Stability Pact in 2004 that they showed toward the ECB’s decision to buy government bonds, Mr Trichet said.
Mr Trichet also highlighted that both Paris and Berlin had failed to uphold the standards they had fought to impose on the EU by forcing through a dilution of the Stability Pact's strict penalties for excessive public deficits.
The governments were extremely unreliable, over the course of months and years, Mr Trichet said, in comments published in German.
The ECB president also said that ‘excessive’ salaries and bonus packages based on short-term profits with little foundation in the real economy were unsustainable and still an issue.
EU leaders agreed Thursday on to impose a tax on banks that could fund future bailouts in the wake of Europe's debt crisis, and to 'promote' the option of a global tax on financial transactions when G20 leaders gather for a summit in Toronto, Canada next weekend.
I wish the German public had reacted with the same indignation to the breach of the Stability Pact in 2004 that they showed toward the ECB’s decision to buy government bonds, Mr Trichet said.
Mr Trichet also highlighted that both Paris and Berlin had failed to uphold the standards they had fought to impose on the EU by forcing through a dilution of the Stability Pact's strict penalties for excessive public deficits.
The governments were extremely unreliable, over the course of months and years, Mr Trichet said, in comments published in German.
The ECB president also said that ‘excessive’ salaries and bonus packages based on short-term profits with little foundation in the real economy were unsustainable and still an issue.
EU leaders agreed Thursday on to impose a tax on banks that could fund future bailouts in the wake of Europe's debt crisis, and to 'promote' the option of a global tax on financial transactions when G20 leaders gather for a summit in Toronto, Canada next weekend.
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