Common government of the economy comes together. In yesterday's column, I questioned the idea that Friday 7 May's eurozone summit would get 'economic governance' of the EU rolling. A few hours ahead of the meeting, I would like to remove the question mark because in a letter, the two most influential politicians attending the summit, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, along with the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, made it crystal clear that future eurozone governance would be the focus of debate at the summit (see yesterday's newsletter). Herman Van Rompuy did not need to echo this because three weeks ago, he announced that the European Council was Europe's 'economic government' (his comments can be found in my column in issue 10120). It is true that only eurozone countries are attending this evening's summit, but Van Rompuy had no qualms about convening it without mentioning the European Council because he clearly believes that all meetings of heads of state form part of his brief, not just full European Council summits.
Moving beyond hints and suggestions. The spirit of the Merkel/Sarkozy letter moves beyond hints and suggestions, plainly stating that eurozone heads of state at the summit 'will have to tackle the signals they are prepared to send out on the eurozone,' including stronger budget surveillance and more effective penalties; stricter monitoring of structural issues and competitiveness; creating a robust crisis management framework ; tighter regulation of the financial markets; measures to increase transparency in derivatives; improving databases; and examining the role of credit rating agencies in spreading panic and crises.
This list broadly matches the list of measures that the European Commission has already suggested or unveiled, some of which are being examined by the European Parliament. Merkel and Sarkozy have added the call for heads of state to announce right now what measures they are prepared to introduce for the eurozone. Needless to say, the United Kingdom will not be attending the summit.
The penny has dropped in Germany. German public opinion is not all clamouring for a strong line to be taken against Greece. Columnists report on people voting with their feet in support of solidarity with the country by buying Greek government gilts and bonds. A range of people are quoted, explaining, for example: 'I am buying Greek bonds because we can't leave countries at the mercy of speculators.' German business newspaper Handelsblatt is launching a campaign with the slogan 'We are buying Greek state debt, 'describing its campaign as 'common sense,' with Handelsblatt reporters themselves buying up €8,000-worth of Greek bonds to set an example. Two renowned reporters report that sentimentality has outstripped rationality, but add: 'We know that European Unity is the best part of Germany's history.' This people's movement to buy up Greek debt is winning the support of politicians, economists and entrepreneurs.
A crucial domain where Europe is absent. I will return in my column to the new Jacques Delors initiative for a European Energy Community (announced in issue 10133). I can already see his answer to a question he was asked in Paris: 'I find it humiliating to see all the European heads of state deal with Putin separately and I am worried about divergent interests clashing over the route of the three new gas pipelines. This means that Europe does not exist in this crucial domain.'
Stronger ties with Morocco. The brand-new joint EU-Morocco parliamentary committee held its first meeting this week. MEP Dominique Vlasto welcomed the first meeting, explaining that its small size (only 10 MEPs and 10 Moroccan parliamentarians) makes it possible for everyone to speak their mind and get to the bottom of things. He said the EU's new relations with Morocco show that it is a privileged EU partner that wants closer ties with the EU and to move towards European standards. Connections between the EU and Morocco will, he said, serve as an example of what the EU could do with other partner countries. EU-Morocco relations should be compared with the problems and absence of genuine political dialogue at the Union for the Mediterranean, which I discussed in my column in issue 10130 and in the report on the EU-Tunisia Cooperation Council in yesterday's newsletter.
(F.R. trans fl)