Brussels, 16/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - During the “Question hour with the President of the European Commission” in Strasbourg on Tuesday 15 June, Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium) expressed his astonishment at the decision taken by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at their meeting on Monday on economic governance in the EU but not in the euro area. Former Belgian prime minister Verhofstadt finds the decision somewhat odd. “It's not a matter of the euro area versus the EU. We need economic governance in both the EU and the euro area, but it is even more needed in the euro area because there is the single currency,” he commented. He asked European Commission President José Manuel Barroso: “What do you think? Do you agree with us that economic governance is needed in both the eurozone and the EU? With regard to who should head this economic governance, we take the view that it should be the Commission. It is not possible that a Council meeting four times a year can conduct economic governance in Europe, with all the problems we have seen. It's now for the Commission to sit in the driver's seat. What is your position on this issue?”
“As far as the competences already given to the EU are concerned, the Commission IS the economic government of Europe. That is the only response that is in line with the Treaty,” Barroso replied to applause from MEPs. “As for trade, budgetary supervision, that too is the Commission. It has to be said that a number of our governments have not read the Treaties well enough! That said, the Commission cannot fulfil this task on its own. It has to work with the Council and the European Council, which provides the broad thrust to the work of the EU,” he pointed out. Barroso said he agreed, too, with Verhofstadt's first proposal. “We have the euro area. Article 136 of the Lisbon Treaty opens the way for us for far wider possibilities in terms of proposals for the euro area, with specificities and rights, and also for the EU as a whole. I hope that European economic governance in the euro area will be strengthened, but always in line with the Treaty and the community method,” he said.
“The first test will be on Thursday, when the European Council decides on the EU 2020 strategy. I hope that, in this strategy, it is not the Council that will monitor the Commission!” Verhofstadt said.
“We can't have macro-management in the European Council. That would be a fundamental error,” Barroso replied to the point, stating that “the Commission is determined to monitor the 2020 strategy”. (G.B./transl.rt)