Brussels, 21/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - Unveiling her draft report on the financial, economic and social crisis in Strasbourg this week, French Socialist MEP Pervenche Berès urged Member States to take action and not get bogged down in keeping things as they are. In her report looking at what caused the crisis and examining ambitious ways of solving the crisis, Berès, who chairs the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee, calls for the introduction of the reforms under study to be a real turning point and put an end to short-term approaches. Key issues in the draft report are sustainability, solidarity, investment and redistribution of wealth. It will be discussed by the special EP crisis committee on 3 June 2010, which is expected to vote on it on 3 July 2010.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Berès said that EU Member States can no longer make do with being coordinated, and the EU should lead projects in areas where powers are shared like energy, industrial policy and transport. Berès said the EU had to be provided with the resources needed to put this into practice with an appropriate EU budget and examining the issue of the EU taking out a big loan and levying a tax on financial transactions, two flagship initiatives to flesh out an arsenal of tangible proposals to improve economic governance in the eurozone. Everyone in the eurozone sees the need for budget discipline but austerity measures should be preceded by dialogue among countries and a common budget strategy, she said, calling for countries to unite and monitor before issuing any punishment. She also recommended that the eurozone be piloted by one of the vice-presidents of the European Commission, and for the same person to chair the ECOFIN Council and Eurogroup.
Berès' wide range of proposals include a new development model based on replacement indicators; a bigger EU budget (with new 'own resources') so the Commission can directly intervene in eurozone piloting and the funding of energy, industrial policy and transport); increasing the comparability of national budget expenditure; the European Investment Bank to issue euro-bonds; introducing a tax on financial transactions; gradually introducing a carbon tax; reforming the Cohesion Funds to favour long-term investment, support for small business, renovating houses and other such measures; fiscal harmonisation; consolidating the European social model; and introducing legislation on public and social services.
On Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), the draft report sets a number of targets, such as introducing a harmonised timetable for the setting of eurozone Member States' budgets based on uniform forecasts; issuing Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPG) in co-decision with the European Parliament (the BEPG would then focus debate and assessment of eurozone Member States' budgets in open sittings of Eurogroup before the parliaments of the countries concerned examine the budget); mutualised emission of bonds for a portion of Member States' sovereign debts; setting up a financial stability mechanism to deal with the risk of countries defaulting on their debt; and the introduction of public debt rescheduling, restructuring and cancellation measures for some public debt.
In order to simplify the money markets and make them more open and useful to society, Berès suggests measures like forcing banks to examine loan applications in terms of how they would impact on jobs; giving the European Financial Markets Authority responsibility for registering and authorising trading models and practices for innovative financial products, licensing them for sale, monitoring product development and, where necessary, withdrawing products temporarily or permanently; boycotting Goldman Sachs; and setting up a European public credit rating agency.
The report suggests that corporate governance should include legislation on independent and diversified boards of management in which staff representatives are involved, which would oversee corporate business, pay and voting rights; and for companies to compile not only financial balance sheets but also social and environmental balance sheets each year.
On the world stage, a G20 summit should focus exclusively on reforming global governance. The EU should decide to recognise its presence in international bodies to increase its influence.
When it comes to green investment and town and country planning, the draft report recommends that state regain planning policies should foster strategies to attract business to areas where people live and study to help reduce expenditure on energy and promote the development of a sustainable transport strategy; ensure the poorest members of society can access affordable energy resources and plan redistribution measures; and fairly sharing the benefits of moving to a greener economy. (A.B. trans fl)