Leading members of Germany's ruling Christian Democratic Union party have fiercely criticised François Hollande, accusing the French president of "shaking the foundations of the European Union" just hours before the two countries' leaders met in Paris in a bid to repair relations.
German concern about the French government’s resistance to economic reform and hostility to EU pressure emerged after Mr Hollande said it was not for the European Commission “to dictate” reforms to Paris.
“There is no need for European recommendations; what’s needed is obvious. It’s not for the commission to dictate what we have to do”, Mr Hollande said in response to the Commission’s annual assessment of EU members’ budgets.
Andreas Schockenhoff, a CDU deputy chairman and the party’s foreign policy spokesman, said the French president’s “vehement criticism of the European Commission’s reform proposals contradicts the spirit and letter of European agreements and treaties. Someone who talks like that is shaking the foundations of the EU.”
The CDU’s budget spokesman, Norbert Barthle, said that the two-year extension granted to Paris was longer than Germany had expected: “France won’t be able to bank on such indulgence again.” Mr Barthle argued that Mr Hollande had misunderstood the nature of European co-operation if he thought Paris could accept the Commission’s extension while rejecting the conditions attached to it.
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