France pushes for joint debt to bolster international role of euro

24 comments

1. About time to unify Europe with debt!

2. Of course they do, France has so many debt that they want to share them with others – completely altruistically, of course.

3. >France and other heavily indebted countries, including Italy and Spain, have long pushed for more common borrowing in order to be able to spend more on priorities such as defence without adding to their national burden.

   Sounds like all the more reason why we shouldn’t have joint borrowing. Those countries, mine included, need to learn to balance their budgets.

   >The EU is already struggling to repay the almost €800bn of common debt it issued during the Covid-19 pandemic to fund economic stimulus.

   >The European Commission estimates €30bn per year, or a fifth of the budget from 2028, will be spent on repayments, unless it refinances the debt. France says that issuing more debt on top would create enough liquidity to tempt investors, according to two people familiar with the matter.

   So France’s proposal to address the large EU debt is to…issue more debt? Genius!

4. Let me tell you, who will have to pay more?
   Germany and the Netherlands?

5. Good luck with selling the plan to the Germans and the Dutch.

6. No comments talking about “European Solidarity” now, huh? Funny how that only works for defence apparently

7. Just like in marriage, it is the boring stuff like shared bank account that makes it real XD

8. I swear my politicians are addicted to debt

9. Every time this comes up fiscally more responsible countries answer, that this only goes with giving up financial sovereignty to the EU. This won’t happen.

10. France has spent around 300 billion euros on its nuclear arsenal since 1945. Countries that opposes joint issue of debt also want to be included in France nuclear umbrella…

    Cakers the lot of them! lol

11. I would like to see the French cry when the German are going to reply : “ok but then we make your budget for you”

12. It’s a good idea, for most of eu countries they would pay less interest and the remaining one would only see a slightly uptick (Germany is gonna do a lot of debt now so I expect their yields to increase).

    What it is important is the accountability, it should not be just hand out of debt money to countries. There should be the possibility of blocking funds to countries through qualified majority voting to irresponsable countries. Also money should be tied to specific goals/reforms

13. EU debt for EU spending. National debt for National spending. Why is this so hard?

14. Sure, joint debt, joint financials. You don’t get to decide how much you spend anymore. Still want it France?

15. I can’t speak for the Dutch but the Germans have become so obsessed with debt, they’re willing to sacrifice anything on its alter. Austerity to some extent worked, debt to GDP is lower, but the cost was infrastructure failing, trains that don’t work, lack of funding in schools, insufficient health spending.

    I mean our internet infrastructure is laughable considering how much money we could invest in it. The joke is that the CDU are now the ones having to actually invest and increase the debt, shredding their reputation for “fiscal responsibility” built on never spending on anything even when it’s needed.

16. I would only be in favour of this if French tax and fiscal spending policies are decided by the EU.

    Otherwise, they’ll just use other countries to finance their impossible to afford welfare state. Countries like the Netherlands and Germany should just demand pension age goes to at least 65 immediately.

17. Okay, are those countries also willing to align their spendings on a similar level? Denmark just increased its retirement age to 70 to have a somewhat sustainable retirement program. France is still at 64 and now wants Denmark to pay for that

18. I think this obsession of European countries to “balance” the book and reduce debt is damaging to projects. Finances work differently for countries and somehow people compare them to their own household debt. A country could have a 200% debt-to-gdp with 0.01% interest and no limit to return and alot of people would just see the debt and panic.

19. I can’t believe how many people didn’t read the article and thus are making completely irrelevant comments about France’s national debt. The goal here is to introduce bonds for the EU as a whole in addition to each country already having their own national bonds. This would allow the EU to compete against bonds from the US, which will strengthen the euro as a world currency. This does **NOT** mean that other countries will pay off France’s national debt.

20. Can’t raise a joint European army without joint Europe debt.

    Defense aside, makes a lot of sense with the cratering of the US bond market. Investors want stability and there’s no reason the euro can’t provide that.

21. Joint debt without a joint policy/governance?

    Is it really a good idea, to let other people spent the money you saved for by practicing austerity?

22. People on r/europe speedrunning not reading the article just to bash France and French, USA worked well.

23. joint debt was the point when the different colonies in North America became one. USA.

    Everything followed after. I’m all for shared debt. This means shared oversight, this means shared finance ministry, which will lead to shared foreign policy, which will lead to shared EU Army

24. Crazy how few people are reading an article before opening their mouth

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