2023-09-02 12:37:20
By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted 8 hours ago, Updated 8 hours ago
Laurence Boone, Secretary of State for Europe. AFP
In September 2022, “Bruno Le Maire had agreed with the banks to cap the increase in bank charges at 2% in 2023”, recalls the former chief economist of the OECD.
The tax onsuperprofitsof banks established by Italy is part of a general movement in Europe where “several countries have taken temporary measures to redistribute windfall profits“, judged in an interview granted to Agence France-Presse on Saturday the French Secretary of State in charge of Europe, Laurence Boone. In early August, the Meloni government introduced a tax on “superprofitsof banks, undermining the morale of business leaders.
«All European countries have experienced exceptional circumstances due to the surge in energy prices or the rise in interest rates, which have inflated the profits of companies in certain sectors“, recognizes Laurence Boone, former chief economist of the OECD. On the occasion of the economic forum organized by The European House – Ambrosetti in Cernobbio, on the shores of Lake Como, she recalls the context in France: “the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire thus sat down in September 2022 at a table with the banks and they agreed to cap the increase in bank charges at 2% in 2023.»
«As for the accusations speaking of populist measures [en Italie], we had similar debates in France on the rise in energy prices which increased the profits of certain companies, in the wake of the war in Ukraine. The European Union has introduced a temporary tax on the excess profits of energy groups that France has transposed into its 2023 budget», adds Laurence Boone.
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“The reform of the stability pact is decided at 27”
The Secretary of State also shared her opinion on the establishment of a common front of the countries of the South, including France, to ask Brussels for more flexibility on the stability pact which limits deficits and debt. “The reform of the stability pact is decided at 27 and obviously we are talking to everyone. The proposal that the European Commission put on the table in April guarantees a good balance between growth and investment on the one hand and the sustainability of public finances on the other.“, she mentions.
«We want to evolve from the rules that were in place before the Covid pandemic and before the war in Ukraine, which would hardly apply to the world we live in today. I have no doubt that we will reach an agreement at European level before the end of the yearconcludes the former chief economist of the OECD.
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