Strasbourg, 15/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - At a joint press conference on the sidelines of the plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday 15 June, the leaders of the four main political groups in the European Parliament - Frenchman Joseph Daul for the EPP, German Martin Schulz for the S&D, Belgian Guy Verhofstadt for the ALDE, and German Rebecca Harms for the Greens - were united against overly inter-governmental handling by the European Council of economic issues, calling for the Community method to be favoured and for more power to be given to the European Commission in directing economic and budgetary policy. “We want to tell the Council, the heads of state and government of the 27 member states, and also national parliaments and the European public, that, with the crisis that has been affecting our economies and threatening our social cohesion, and the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty, which gives the Parliament equal powers with the Council, things have changed. We have to stop doing things as they were done in the past, that is to say, using the inter-governmental approach, and give the Community method its rightful place,” Daul said. “We all know that whether on the economy, social affairs, the environment, security, energy research and innovation, there is only one level of decision-making that is useful and effective for our countries. Look at the new economic and social reality, the new institutional situation, and play the European game, not just in words, but in deeds,” he went on. Following on, Schultz also attacked the attitude of certain member states in the European Council and underlined the need to promote the Community method. “To meet the challenges that face us, we, as a Union, need coordinated European action. We need more Europe, and consequently we have to restrict inter-governmental discussion and enhance the role and action of the European institutions. Economic governance is the role of the European Commission, which has to play a stronger executive role,” he stressed, arguing for financial coordination and cooperation to be carried out in line with the Lisbon Treaty, and for the economic governance of the euro area to be responsible to the European Parliament. “Currently, the European Council is behaving as some kind of self-appointed government, with a Franco-German Board, and this does not correspond to our idea of Europe, or the interests of the European citizens, or either the spirit or the letter of the Lisbon Treaty which is already in force,” Schulz stated. “A system of economic governance base on the Community has to be put in place. It is the Commission that has to be in the driver's seat, not the Council, and not member states. Whether it's the 16 states in the euro area or the 27 members of the EU is not the main question,” said Verhostadt. “The financial markets are testing the will of the EU to go in that direction,” insisted the former Belgian prime minister. “We don't want any more talking. It's action on financial regulation we want. We need a tax on financial transactions,” said Harms. Just before the European Council of 17-18 June, the EPP, S&D, ALDE and the Greens have submitted two joint resolutions on economic governance and the 2020 strategy, which will be put to the vote on Wednesday. (E.H./transl.rt)