The reluctance of the Germans and the Dutch to the euro-zone investment fund is incomprehensible

A large European investment fund (France and Germany have announced an initial fund of EUR 500 billion) would help to bridge the gap in public and corporate investment in many euro-zone countries, finance the energy transition, etc. However, we are aware of the reluctance in some countries (Germany and the Netherlands in particular) to this pooling of investments. But this reluctance is incomprehensible. Germany and the Netherlands have huge external surpluses, and therefore massive savings surpluses that are currently invested mainly in bonds, particularly in US Treasury bonds, which have very low yields. If these savings surpluses were lent to the European investment fund, the return on these savings would be much higher because they would be invested in profitable projects, which should convince Germany and the Netherlands to accept this fund and finance it. Moreover, restoring investment and potential growth in the euro zone is in everyone's interest.