BERLIN Reuters -- Germany wants to respect the agreed fiscal rules as this helps to control inflation, new Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Monday that he expects the real debate about the EU's fiscal rules to start in June.
Lindner said that the fiscal rules of the EU's Stability and Growth Pact had proved their flexibility during the crisis, as he spoke to reporters in Brussels before his first Eurogroup meeting with counterparts from other euro zone member states.
But now it's time to build up fiscal buffers again, we need resilience not only in the private sector, but also in the public sector, said Lindner. I'm very much in favor of reducing sovereign debt. According to Lindner, there are already a lot of exemptions included in the EU's Stability and Growth Pact, which is a goal of central banks, but governments can do their part in sticking to fiscal rules.
Berlin expects that the real debate about the Stability and Growth Pact will start in June when the European Commission's propsals are expected to be announced, and Germany is open to hearing about how the EU's fiscal rules can be improved, but Berlin expects to start in June when the European Commission's propsals are expected, according to Lindner.
In the first halve of this year, Germany wants to work closely with France, and use its own G 7 presidency this year to improve resilience in the banking sector, according to Lindner, who is holding the EU presidency in the first halve of this year.
Berlin is willing to complete the EU's banking union, which includes tackling the problem of the state-owned nexus, he said, referring to the high concentration of bonds of a single sovereign in the balance sheets of banks in the same country.
In the year 2022, we will have a comprehensive approach to all these issues, including the Stability and Growth Pact, the Banking Union and fiscal-monetary stability as a whole, according to Lindner.