After the carrot comes the stick. Eurozone countries that do not respect international commitments to contain the deficit should be excluded from any aid program with Community structural funds. This is one of the proposals contained in the letter that Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy they sent today to the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.
"In the future - argue the French president and the German chancellor - payments derived from the structural funds and cohesion should be suspended in the countries of the euro area that do not comply with the recommendations of the procedure on excessive deficits".
The funds must serve "to support the indispensable reforms that aim to improve economic growth and competitiveness in the euro area" and their purpose is exclusively the improvement "of competitiveness and the reduction of imbalances in the member states, to which recommendations in the scope of the procedure concerning excessive imbalances”.
