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Joint Communiqué from the Slovak Minister of Finance and the French Minister for Economy and Finance

Last update: 28.07.2017 06:00

The Slovak Minister of Finance, Mr. Peter Kažimír, and the French Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr. Bruno Le Maire, met in Paris today to discuss issues of common interest, focusing on the future of the European Union and of the Euro Area.


Bruno Le Maire reiterated the high priority for France to make decisive and swift progress on the integration of the Economic and Monetary Union: “We need a stronger Euro area for our European economies to grow stronger and faster. We have to go deeper in the integration of our economic and fiscal policies in order to better absorb the shocks ahead of us. The method that I propose is a balanced one: we will seek at the same time more responsibility and more solidarity”.


Peter Kažimír welcomes France‘s push towards a quick delivery on strategies aimed to strengthen the eurozone and the European Union, adding that keeping business as usual would be damaging and leave Europe vulnerable to future shocks.
 
 
Both Ministers agreed that very substantial steps have already been taken since the crisis and contribute to supporting the current firming recovery. “We need to clean up the legacy of the crisis as well as build common tools for the future, we need fiscal discipline as well as stabilisation,” Kažimír said, adding this overhaul includes an overhaul of the European Stability Mechanism into an institution fitting the future needs of Europe. Bruno Le Maire and Peter Kažimír recognized that much more should be done to transform the Monetary Union into a real Economic Union. Persisting imbalances and weaknesses in several banking sectors as well as questions raised around the Euro Area governance, the implementation of rules and the creation of a stabilization capacity are issues both Ministers considered key to address in order to strengthen the architecture of the EMU.

Both ministers say: “We are confident that we will deliver on this”. They will make sure that their energy, vigour and enthusiasm is transformed into concrete action for the Euro area.

The French and Slovak Ministers expressed their will to maintain a close dialogue on these matters in order to develop common ideas that could contribute to the current debate among Members of the Euro Area and the European Union.


Press department
Ministry of Finance of the SR