Monday 20 July 2015 11:39 am

French President François Hollande calls for a Eurozone parliament with a shared budget

French President François Hollande wants to see a new parliament and a shared budget for Eurozone countries.

Writing in Le Journal Du Dimanche, a French Sunday paper, Hollande said:

Europe has let its institutions weaken and the 28 governments struggle to agree to move forward. [National] parliaments remain too far from decisions. And the peoples are being turned away [from Europe] by dint of being bypassed…

It is not the excess of Europe that is threatening us, but the lack of it.

Hollande continued:

The Eurozone has this week reaffirmed its cohesion over Greece…The European spirit has prevailed. But we can’t remain there.

I've proposed going back to Jacques Delors’ idea of a Eurozone government, and adding to it a specific [Eurozone] budget as well as a [Eurozone] parliament to ensure its democratic control.

This comes days after the French President used his Bastille Day speech to emphasis the strength of Franco-German relations and call for a strengthening of ties between the 19 nations of the Eurozone, including putting forward an argument for the bloc’s own elected parliament.

"What we want, along with Germany, is a convergence on fiscal and social policy," Hollande said.

This has led Ukip leader Nigel Farage to call the French President “desperate” over the calls, and may put pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron as he attempts to renegotiate Britain’s membership in the European Union.