The E.U.’s stability is built on adherence to its laws ?

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Opinion: How France gets away with breaking EU rules on its …

http://www.marketwatch.com › story › how-france-gets-away

Oct 25, 2019 · France is already overshooting the treaty limit in 2019. The budget deficit at 3.1% of GDP is because of the extra spending ordered by Macron a year ago to help him tackle the “yellow jackets”…

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Oops, France did it again! EU allows Paris near-traditional …

http://www.rt.com › business › 447520-france-eu-budget

Dec 27, 2018 · Paris had to admit last week that its budget deficit next year is set to stand at around 3.2 percent, which is 0.4 percent more than initially expected and higher than the three percent that the European Union deficit rules allow. The forecast comes following weeks of nationwide anti-fuel tax hikes and anti-Macron protests, that forced the French leader to announce wage increases for the poorest workers and a tax cut for most pensioners

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France’s Deficit Tests the Flexibility of the EU’s Fiscal Rules

http://www.piie.com › blogs › realtime-economic-issues

Dec 18, 2018 · These measures will push the fiscal deficit for 2019 from a forecast 2.8 percent to almost 3.5 percent of GDP. The European Commission must now prepare a report under Article 126(3) of the 20-year-old Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to assess the case for launching an EDP against France.

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EU Commission to assess French budget in spring 2019 | Reuters

http://www.reuters.com › article › us-eu-france-budget

In the November document, the EU executive said the French budgetary plan was “at risk of non-compliance” with EU rules because instead of improving the structural deficit by 0.6 percent of …

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France 2019 budget is also a concern for Brussels

http://www.cnbc.com › 2018/10/24 › france-2019-budget-is

Oct 24, 2018 · In the case of France, the 2019 budget plan sees its structural deficit (the difference between spending and revenues, excluding one-off items) falling 0.1 percent this year and 0.3 percent in..

Author: Silvia Amaro

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How Countries Keep Testing the EU’s Fiscal Rules

http://www.bloomberg.com › news › articles

Jan 20, 2019 · Rome lowered its deficit target for 2019 to 2.04% from a previous 2.4%, which the EU had rejected as an “unprecedented” breach of the bloc’s rules, and Brussels held off on a disciplinary …

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Mr Rachman offers this opinion on a Coal and Steel Cartel that evolved into the E.U. Technocrat Supreme Jean Monnet’s vision, and a check on the Soviets!

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Scepticism about the EU’s long-term future is persistent, nonetheless. It may stem partly from the organisation’s unique nature. It is an international organisation with many of the characteristics of a state, including a currency, a parliament, a supreme court and a central bank. This hybrid nature of the EU invites outsiders, used to dealing with nation-states, to regard the EU as unnatural, or even deformed and therefore an obvious candidate for an early death, like a human born with its organs in the wrong place.

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Perhaps Mr. Rachman should consult Bernard Connolly’s ‘The Rotten Heart of Europe’ revised 2012 edition, for an insider’s view of the E.U.

The Collection of Villains:

Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini, Viktor Orban, Poland ( Andrzej Duda doesn’t rate a mention? He’s part of a team that makes their own rules? See the first party of my essay. ) , China and Russia (The New Cold War)

A sign of hope? ‘Opinion polls show that young people are more pro-EU than older voters.’

The reader didn’t get a potent political drama in the hands of a Sidney Lumet, but the melodramatic kitsch of a Douglas Sirk!

Political Skeptic