Do your job

20 May 2010 By Pierre Briancon

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, wants to enshrine fiscal discipline in the constitution albeit with a lot of caveats. Following Germany’s reform earlier this year may sound alluring, but such rules lack longterm credibility. Budgets must reflect political choices.

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Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said on May 20 that he was in favor of a constitutional amendment that would force any government coming out of an election to implement a fiveyear deficit reduction plan, sanctioned by France's Constitutional Court.

The move follows Germany's decision to enshrine rules on fiscal discipline in its constitution last year.

Dominique StraussKahn, chief of the International Monetary Fund, said Europe needs stronger economic policy coordination. "The idea that you can have a common currency and everyone can do whatever they want is false," he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview published on May 20.

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