Angela Merkel, very reluctant to this idea for years, ended up rallying last spring to the project of a common European debt to finance the recovery plan, pushed by Emmanuel Macron.
This mutual borrowing still arouses a certain suspicion in Germany.
Starting with that of the Court of Auditors which has just published a report on it.
"
The financial impact will be felt until the next generation
", warned its president Thursday, Kay Scheller.
For financial magistrates from across the Rhine, this “
communitarization of debt and responsibility
” marks “
a turning point”
.
For the federal budget, "
this involves considerable risks
", alarms Kay Scheller.
Read also: Anyone who wants to save Europe must oppose the principle of a common debt
This new common debt of 750 billion euros is supposed to be repaid within thirty years.
"
But one can wonder who will contribute to what and when
", wonders the German counterpart of Pierre Moscovici.
It does not seem to make much of the European Union's plans to mobilize future own resources, such as the tax on plastics or the carbon border adjustment mechanism, likely to contribute to future reimbursements.
Kay Keller's fear?
That the Member States could "
theoretically take on unlimited debt at EU level and allocate these funds to each other in the form of grants
".
This plan also risks "
reducing the incentive for responsible precaution and weakening budgetary discipline
", established as cardinal virtues in Germany and in the so-called "frugal" countries of Northern Europe.
Read also: How the ECB could solve the problem of our over-indebtedness
The Court of Auditors concludes that the recovery and reconstruction fund could eventually weaken the EU.
For its part, the Union on Friday called on the member states to "
speed up
" national ratifications of the mechanism to finance this massive recovery plan, the first payments of which could be made "
at the beginning of the summer
".
