France's public debt is very much in the spotlight. The country's recently appointed prime minister, Michel Barnier, calls it a "sword of Damocles" hanging over future generations. Indeed, for many countries, paying interest on the national debt deprives them of investing in education, healthcare, research and so on. Similar debates are happening across the EU, as the European Commission asks member states to submit their debt reduction plans. We ask Jean-Claude Trichet, former president of the European Central Bank (ECB), for his read on the debt situation, and on prospects for an overall European recovery. We also touch on EU-China relations, as a tensions come to a head over the issue of China subsidising the electric vehicles that it exports to Europe.
On China and the EU, Trichet says: "Overall, it seems to me that the position of the Europeans is not the position of the US, and rightly so, because we have absolutely no interest in embarking in a drama at that level. We are much more open than the US. We depend much more for our growth on external trade. That being said, of course we have to defend our interests in the best fashion possible. There are nuances between the various European countries because they don't have exactly the same relationship with China. But it seems to me that we all agree on the fact that we should not have any dramatic break in our relationship with China. That would be a big, big mistake."
