Emmanuel Macron saw his and Angela Merkel’s proposal for a common coronavirus recovery fund come into reality after five days of intense talks with other European Union members. The EU agreed to a €750 billion fund to help COVID-stricken regions across the bloc despite vocal opposition from more fiscally conservative Northern countries. Former French Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau hailed the deal as “historic” but saw the proposal quickly dismissed as BBC presenter Justin Webb claimed Brussels has “unrealistic” expectations on how to pay back the money borrowed to sustain the fund.
The BBC Today host said: “What will be done to pay for it? Because there is a list of extra taxes that will one day allow the European Union to pay it back and indeed soothe the bond markets who need to lend Europe this money in the meantime. Is this going to be enough?”
Ms Loiseau, a member of President Macron’s La Republique En Marche party, said: “Well, European taxpayers are not going to be the ones to repay the debt.
“The debt will be repaid through new European resources like a carbon inclusion mechanism at the border of the European Union.
“If you are outside of the European Union and you don’t respect the objectives of the Paris Agreement, you have to pay a tax to import into the European Union.”
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However the suggestion foreign businesses will contribute to the repayment of the giant fund had Mr Webb question the feasability of the plan.
He said: “Hang on a minute. That sounds too ingenious to be true, doesn’t it?
“That somehow foreigners, those outside the European Union will pay extra taxes to do business with the EU and that somehow magically makes this debt go away. That feels incredibly unrealistic.”
Ms Loiseau hit back: “Thats the strength of the 27. It’s not unrealistic. We are the wealthiest, biggest market in the world.
“People want to trade with us, the digital big companies are making a lot of profit in the European Union, they have to pay their fair share of taxes. So yes, we know exactly where the money is, we knew exactly were we were going to get them.”
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