BERLIN – Growth and solid finances are no contradiction and can be reached at the same time, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday, responding to questions on differences between Berlin and Paris over the extent of public investment and debt.
“We have just shown – and both of us had a stake in this – what is possible when we are working together in Europe within the framework of the existing stability and growth pact,” Scholz said after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, referring to the EU’s recovery fund mainly engineered by the two countries.
“I am confident that we can solve the problems ahead of us together and that we can continue to enable the growth that we fostered with the recovery fund, and that at the same time we can ensure solid finances,” he noted.
“It is possible to achieve both at the same time, they are not opposites. We have promised to use the flexibility that the stability and growth pact offers.”
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
