France plans austerity measures

France is implementing austerity measures with a new budget proposal that would cut government spending for the first time in decades, Press TV reports.

The 2012 budget proposal of French President Sarkozy’s government is the first to reduce public spending since World War II.

“This was a budget created to please the European commission in Brussels. It stems from the desire to drastically reduce the deposit in order to control the political and economic situation but it could do a lot of damage to French growth and job creation,” Eric Heyer from Political Sciences Institute has told Press TV.

The plan is aimed at cutting one billion euros in spending — mostly by cutting 30,000 public sector jobs — and generating 10 billion euros by raising taxes on drinks and cigarettes and on high yearly incomes.

“All of the European countries are using the same strategy even though they are not all in the same situation, the big economies should increase wages to spur consumption, which would permit the countries that need austerity measures to have a bit of growth,” Heyer added.

Many say the crisis has left the European Union with only two options; to dissolve or to centralize power in a federal system similar to the United States.

“To achieve the necessary eurozone coordination we must conceive of a true European government which can supervise and direct national budgets, only a European government with a correspondingly large budget could direct France from the richer economies to the poorer countries ” Heyer commented on the issue.

Source

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