BRUSSELS - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday countered proposals for a European Sovereignty Fund by arguing there was still money available from prior European support packages that should be used up first.
"First of all, there are quite a lot of funds that have not been disbursed yet...this is the beauty of the European Recovery plan," he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting in Brussels, referring to a giant stimulus package agreed by the EU to help speed up the bloc's post-COVID recovery.
Earlier on Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she would present concrete proposals in the summer on the idea of creating a European Sovereignty Fund to help Europe become a world leader in clean-tech.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner has warned against taking on new common European debt in response to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.
"If 'sovereignty fund' means new common European debt, then I think this would not be an improvement of our competitiveness or stability. It would be a threat for competitiveness and stability," he said.