EU chief to present growth proposals

(BRUSSELS) - EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso will strike while the iron is still hot after the election of Francois Hollande as French president and present on Tuesday a series of growth proposals.

Hollande, elected on Sunday, made it the signature pledge of his campaign to get the EU to adopt a growth pact to complement the budget austerity policy enshrined in the fiscal pact signed in March.

Barroso's proposals "don't contain any new ideas", a European source told AFP, but reprise those made over the past two years and are likely to have the biggest impact on boosting growth in the short term.

"Everyone knows that the states don't have the money at the national level to relaunch growth, therefore we have to use money available at the European level," added the source.

Even though Barroso's proposals may not be new, they include several the Socialist Hollande has made himself, and may help forge an alliance.

In pushing for a shift of focus to growth Hollande is pitting himself against German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been the main advocate of the austerity policy and the new EU fiscal pact.

"Hollande seems to want to use the Commission as a platform to put pressure on Merkel", which would allow the EU executive to again become a player in the policy debate, said the source.

Barroso's proposals are to include funding large infrastructure projects with joint European borrowing, increasing the European Investment Bank's capital by at least 10 billion euros to enable it to support small and medium businesses, a financial transactions tax and better use of EU funds.