French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Monday urged economy ministers from the eurozone and the European Union to come up with a common response to economic turmoil facing the bloc. Rejecting as "not reasonable" talk of a possible recession in France after gross domestic product contracted in the second quarter, Fillon said France, like its EU partners, was suffering from external shocks and a joint response would be useful.
"What we need to propose is a method so that ... all the countries of the European Union, and in particular the countries in the eurozone, begin this co-ordination effort which, for the moment, has not taken place," he told a news conference.
France, which holds the rotating EU presidency, hosts the next meeting of European Union finance ministers in Nice on September 12-13. Speaking after a meeting with government ministers to discuss France's economic woes, Fillon said the recent weakening of the euro against the dollar vindicated past French criticism of the European Central Bank (ECB).
"I note that for the past few weeks we have been moving back towards parity between the dollar and the euro," Fillon said. "I see there the result of the policies conducted by the European Central Bank. I also see the vindication of the remarks, even criticism, that we, with the president, have formulated in the past on the level of the euro."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been a vocal critic of ECB strategy, frequently complaining that the level of the euro has hurt French exporters. Fillon said the French government was maintaining its public deficit forecast for this year, which is 2.5 percent of GDP.
French GDP contracted by 0.3 percent in the second quarter of the year, data showed last week, after growing by 0.4 percent in the first quarter. A recession is usually defined as two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction. Like Fillon, Economy Minister Christine Lagarde has rejected talk of recession but some economists in the private sector say it is possible the eurozone's second biggest economy could be heading in that direction.