"For us Europeans, the main subject is not the size of our budgetary response, but the speed of its execution. Speed is, once again, our collective handicap", declared François Villeroy de Galhau in front of the students of the College. Europe from Bruges, Belgium.
"Governments must now implement the stimulus package on which they have agreed and they must do so urgently," he added, recalling that the United States adopted in record time , after the election of Joe Biden, a plan of 1.900 trillion dollars.
After negotiated last summer by the Twenty-Seven, this EU fund endowed with 750 billion euros is intended to deal with the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. So far, 16 countries have ratified it, including France, Italy and Spain.
In Germany, both chambers of the national parliament have given the green light, but on Friday the German Constitutional Court halted the process.
However, its ratification by all 27 member states is necessary before Brussels can turn to the markets to borrow and distribute the promised funding.
According to the governor, Europe cannot afford to hang around when "for twenty years, the growth gap between the United States and the euro area has widened", with US GDP showing a growth rate of 20 years. % higher than that of the euro zone cumulatively over the period 1999-2019.
And the former chief of staff of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, when the latter was Minister of the Economy, to underline this "painful paradox: the 2008 financial crisis broke out in the United States and the 2020 pandemic in China, and however, each time, it is Europe that has suffered the most "economically. Thus, when the US GDP fell by 3,5% last year, that of the euro zone fell by 6,6%, "almost twice as much".
A situation which is explained, according to the governor, by the "greater dependence of the euro zone on tourism" and "the advance of the United States on the digital level".