Brussels, 14/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 14 April, the European Commission held its first orientation debate on strengthening the coordination of economic policies. This exercise aims to prepare the ground for discussions with finance ministers on Friday and Saturday in Madrid and comes before the presentation of the Commission's communication on this subject on 12 May, which is one of the commissioner for economic and monetary affairs' main priorities. This debate will open up reflection more on the long-term developments in the area of economic supervision and governance in the EU. This perspective was also debated at the European Parliament on Wednesday, as part of a hearing on the lessons to be learned from the Greek crisis (see other article).
The communication on the 12 May therefore constitutes the Commission's main contribution to the working group that will be set up by the president of the European Council. This taskforce will be looking at possible changes to be made to the treaty but the Commission will simply consider improvements in the current treaty. Ollie Rehn explained the revision or planned new rules of secondary law to the press at the end of a meeting of the College of commissioners. The commissioner also explained that “this can be done in a relatively short time…we know what needs to be done, we have the means to do it” and the treaty provides a significant margin of manœuvre for improving the instruments, particularly Article 136. Improvements will be based around three main points:
(a) Enhancing the Stability and Growth Pact (which constitutes a solid series of rules but which faces the problem of respect for the rules, explained the commissioner). The commissioner's idea is to strengthen the corrective aspect of the pact by improving the use of existing measures for imposing penalties (such as the suspension of cohesion funds). More rapid mechanisms for activating them are also planned but Rehn warned that “this issue certainly requires further reflection before we present new concrete proposals” and said that the idea of excluding a member state from the eurozone did not comply with the idea of the founding fathers for ever closer Union.
(b) Deepening and expanding economic supervision (at the level of macro-economic imbalances and competitiveness disparities).
(c) Creating a permanent mechanism for resolving crises. The ad hoc mechanism for possibly helping Greece helps to provide a response to the current crisis but a permanent instrument is needed. Such a facility or fund would cover the whole eurozone but would be accompanied by stricter deterrent measures to discourage states from using it (its intervention would only be a last resort if the previous elements (a) and (b) had not been enough to prevent a crisis emerging). (A.B./trransl.fl)