And we are talking again about disobedience to the European treaties. This is what La France insoumise proposes, whose leaders claim that France is already disobeying on certain points. False, answers François Bayrou. The president of the MoDem and mayor of Pau was the guest of franceinfo on Monday May 16: “When we make a decision together, we respect it. France has not disobeyed [aux 3%, ndlr]it has taken safeguard decisions in agreement with all European countries and that is very good.”
François Bayrou is rather right, even if it does not necessarily seem obvious at first sight.
Let’s first come back to this European budgetary rule provided for by the Maastricht Treaty: States must not widen their deficit beyond 3% of GDP. What France has failed to do on many occasions. Brussels has even launched an excessive deficit procedure. Clearly, France has long risked a fine if it did not correct the situation, and it ended up returning below 3% in 2018.
If France was outside the nails, that does not mean that it disobeyed. To be precise, France has not respected the budgetary rule, except that it is provided for by the treaties if it is an exceptional or temporary event. For example in 2009, France and elsewhere many European countries slipped at that time, while highlighting the financial crisis and the global recession. Conclusion: Paris has several times obtained a deadline to return below 3%, and despite nine years of procedure for excessive deficit, France has never received a fine, like most European countries.
Since March 2020, that is to say at the time of the first confinement against Covid-19, the European Commission has frozen the 3% rule in particular. It should, in theory, apply again on 1 January next. In theory because it could be postponed this time because of the economic impact of the war in Ukraine.