IPE: Germany, France irresponsible to fight pension liability disclosure

22 June 2012

According to Sharon Bowles, proposals for European Union countries to disclose off-balance sheet public pension liabilities have been met with resistance by a "highly irresponsible" group of countries, including Germany and France.

Sharon Bowles, chair of the European Parliament's economics committee (ECON) and member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, said the move demonstrated that some single market governments were "blind to the most basic lessons" of the sovereign debt crisis. Bowles said that trialogue negotiations were suspended yesterday after resistance from Germany, Italy, France and Portugal.

"With memories still fresh of the disastrous consequences of statistical cover-ups in Greece, the parliament believes it is highly irresponsible behaviour on the part of those Member States", the MEP said. "It is saddening and worrying that the gulf between what government representatives say and in the end do is still as wide as ever. This is not the road to credibility."

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