Brussels, 16/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - EU27 leaders will meet on Thursday 17 June in Brussels for a more conventional European Council than previous ones, which were essentially characterised by the response to the financial crisis. Although the meeting's agenda is a “regular” one, the way in which the meeting will take place is not regular in the least because timetable reasons mean that the summit will be restricted to a single day. On the eve of the meeting, a broad convergence of views prevailed on the majority of subjects that will be tackled, whether these involved economic issues (EU 2020, economic governance, the preparation of the G20 summit) or the question of opening accession negotiations with Iceland, confirmed a source participating in the preparations of the European Council. The day will begin with the traditional meeting between the president of the European Parliament (at 10.00am), which will immediately be followed by the work of the European Council.
EUROPE 2020. The European Council will approve the new EU strategy for growth and employment. It will approve integrated guidelines for economic and employment policies and confirm the five main EU objectives, as well as give its approval on the quantitative indicators in education, and those for social inclusion and poverty. The draft conclusions include the target of reducing early school leaving to at least 10% and indicate that 20 million people at least will need help to reduce the risk of poverty and exclusion by 2020.
Financial services. According to this text, EU leaders believe there will be a need to tax financial establishments so that the latter help support the costs of the crisis. They are also insisting that the package on supervision be swiftly adopted, so that the three new monitoring authorities can be operational by 1 January 2011.
G20 summit. If an agreement is reached at an EU level on a tax on the banks, the EU will have to defend this position at an international level (faced with the opposition of certain G20 countries). It will also appeal for consensus at the G20 on a co-ordinated exit strategy and measures for budget recovery, in an effort to ensure the viability of public finances.
Millennium Development Goals. Leaders will reconfirm their commitment to reaching development goals and helping attain the MDGs in the world by 2015. This will be possible if all partners display strong political determination, indicates the draft conclusion.
Climate change. The EU27 will take note of the Commission communication for going further than the 20% emissions reduction target, but will return to this question in the autumn.
Economic governance. During dinner, the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy will examine the progress made by the taskforce he heads. According to the draft conclusions, the European Council is prepared to ratify the orientations developed during last week's group meeting on budgetary discipline and micro-economic surveillance (EUROPE 10155). Measures that are mentioned in the draft conclusions are expected to be thrashed out during the next taskforce meetings, including the one in July. In the budgetary part “it is obvious there are differentiations to be made” between eurozone countries and countries that are not in the zone, confirmed a European source. This is the case for strengthening the preventative dimension of the Stability and Growth Pact, where a coherent and progressive system, including possible sanctions or incentives, should help to ensure that the rules in place are the same for everyone and take into account, “if needs be, the participation of the eurozone member states”. This also applies for the “European semester”, the draft text that stipulates that as from 2011, “the stability and convergence programmes presented to the Commission in the spring, will contain budgetary plans for the following years, taking into account national budgetary procedures” (this is in response to the specificities of the procedure in the United Kingdom”). Our source confirmed that the question of non-financial sanctions not mentioned in the text about the taskforce will have to examine whether these elements can be achieved, at a given time, by way of secondary legislation or through a review of the Treaty.
Work programme. During their working lunch, heads of state and government will also examine the European Council's work programme for the next few months. Van Rompuy would like to organise a European Council in September, bringing together EU foreign affairs ministers on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly. In October, the EU27 will particularly examine the final report of the taskforce on economic governance, whereas in December, they will tackle questions related to innovation. In February the focus will be on energy policy.
The European Council: - will recommend that accession negotiations are opened with Iceland, but will not indicate any precise date at this stage (EUROPE 10160); - identify areas in which autonomous EU sanctions could be taken against Iran (quoted in EUROPE); - give the go-ahead to the adoption of the euro by Estonia on 1 January 2011, noting that the country has respected all the convergence criteria; - take note of the work carried out by the reflection group on Europe up to 2030 and the progress made in implementation of the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum.
European Parliament waiting for signal from European Council supporting “Community method” and would like economic governance coordinated by Commission
On Wednesday, the European Parliament adopted two resolutions in view of this Thursday's European Council: - the first on economic governance, in which MEPs call for the taskforce created by the European Council in March to speed up its work and present concrete proposals, before September 2010, based on the Community method, for greater economic coordination. MEPs also request that the Commission has its own responsibility, strengthened in the area of governance management; - the second on EUROPE 2020. The EP wants more precise objectives, particularly with regard to the relocation of 3% of GDP to R&D, the 30% reduction in EU greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 (as well is a reduction in energy consumption by 20% and an increase in the proportion of renewable energies from at least 25% by 2020) and reducing poverty in the EU by 50%.
The debate which preceded the adoption of the two resolutions, demonstrated that a large number of MEPs believe that the results of the summit would be largely determined by a principled choice: the affirmation to promote the Community Method. On Tuesday 15 June, the four major political groups informed the press (EUROPE 10160) and their presidents reiterated the point on Wednesday.
Speaking on behalf of the Spanish Presidency, Diego López Garrido emphasised the long-term crisis exit strategy, which had to help “strengthen the European project” by basing itself on four factors: budgetary consolidation, preventing new crises, sustainable development, and economic governance. The European Council will examine the conclusions of the taskforce headed by Herman Van Rompuy and the proposals put forward by Olli Rehn. If the member states manage to reach an agreement on these different elements, it will be a significant step towards economic union, explained López Garrido.
José Manuel Barroso took up the arguments and affirmed that over recent months they have been able to demonstrate that they were capable of “reinventing” their response capability when encountering economic difficulties. The president of the European Commission said that this was “uncharted territory” but that they had been able to develop responses, not just the short term, but also budgetary consolidation and an economic surveillance strategy for the long-term. This is not leaving out the issue of growth, which is the subject of the EU 2020 strategy and essential for tackling the crisis. Barroso insisted that this should not be just any kind of growth but “smart, sustainable, inclusive”. He also said that a holistic approach based on solidarity and responsibility is the only approach that has a chance of succeeding and contributing to progress on the path towards economic union, which the EU needed. Barroso explained that governance is a fundamental aspect in this approach and they needed to explain it to citizens. He added that 2010 would be a crucial year for implementing financial reforms. The president of the European Commission concluded that they should not create the impression that they were backtracking with regard to initial responses made to tackling the crisis and that they therefore needed to tackle subjects such as banking taxes and the tax on financial transactions.
Joseph Daul (EPP, France) said that they should call a spade a spade and admit that the crisis is a European and not a global one. He appealed for decisive choices to be made on the Community method. He also explained that this did not mean that Brussels and Strasbourg would “decide on everything” but that they had to provide a clear message with regard to what they wanted to do as a whole, as well as what resources they sought to invest in these projects, so that they were able to successfully carry them out. Daul said that instead of “wasting resources in their individual little corners”, they should invest together.
Martin Schulz, the president of the S&D (Germany) said that they should put an end to 27 different national economic policies and reject any trend towards renationalisation. This appeal also concerned the Commission, and Schulz called on Barroso to be “strong and combative”. The president of the S&D criticised the amoral behaviour of the rating agencies, whose behaviour and comments undermined the efforts made by certain countries (he specifically mentioned Spain). He believes that they should oppose the values of the agencies with the values of the Union's solidarity and Community method.
Guy Verhofstadt, the president of the ALDE Group (Belgium), said that they should not deceive themselves and warned that in this instance they had consensus but that this was not the point of view of the Council and member states, which were already forecasting “disappointing conclusions” from the Thursday summit. He pointed out that the EU 2020 strategy was still being carried out in accordance with the open method of cooperation and that with regard to economic governance, “it is the heads of state and government that will be meeting up four times a year to ensure economic governance, which is impossible, because it is the Commission, which should be doing this”. He underscored the major divergences pitting the Parliament against the Council on the issue of financial supervision. Verhofstadt said that pressure should be exerted to ensure that member states “do not monopolise this governance”. He finished by making an appeal for the sovereignty of states to be transferred to the Commission and European bodies.
The Greens were also singing from the same hymn sheet: Rebecca Harms from Germany would like them to follow the wise advice from Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the Eurogroup, when he called for all the means provided in the existing Treaties to help push forward the Community method. Harms would also be happy to trust the president of the Commission to work to ensure this “European right of scrutiny”, which is sadly lacking, but on which he will have to earn the spurs which we have already granted him. With regard to practical measures for finding a way out of the crisis, action is also required on growth, but cuts that are too robust could lead to recession. This is also the opinion of Lothar Bisky, the president of the GUE Group, who denounced the “orgy of cuts” and asked where the investment would come from that was needed to ensure the success of the EU 2020 strategy if everyone was following an austerity policy. Bisky is calling for economic government but would like even greater genuine “economic democracy”. Citizens do not want ambitious projects that involve further regulation, explained Timothy Kirkhope (ECR) but concrete measures that promote recovery in a vulnerable economy. Nigel Farage (EFD) more explicitly refused any “centralisation of power” and appealed for every country to regain its control of monetary policy.
The majority of those who spoke in the general debate did not share this extreme position. The German Christian Democrat, Werner Langen, denounced the shift towards the intergovernmental method and Stephen Hughes from the British Labour Party would like the EU 2020 strategy to be more ambitious and have more funding. Belgian Green, Philippe Lamberts, called for a tax on financial transactions and a banking tax. He said they needed both of these because the first would bring money into the public treasury and the second would help constitute a “rescue fund”. Lamberts said that in Toronto, the EU should be prepared for financial cleaning up measures, “together if possible, but individually if required”. At a European level, it is also necessary to fight against tax evasion and rethink the EU 2020 strategy, which must primarily be based on social cohesion and structural reforms. Kay Swinbourne (ECR, United Kingdom) would like greater coordination with the US on managing the financial crisis and considers that if it is impossible to obtain an agreement at the G20 level even bilateral agreements would be preferable to no action being taken at all. Marielle De Sarnez (ALDE, France) said that they urgently required budgetary and economic steering for the EU and that the Commission should use its right of initiative to propose innovations, such as, for example, implementation of a European Monetary Fund, a tax on financial transactions or even an EU budget that is more substantial and has its own resources. Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (EPP, Poland) highlighted the fact that economic governance should include all of the 27 member states and not just the 16 from the eurozone. He said that they should avoid splitting the EU into a “group of the elite” made up of eurozone countries and a “second category” group with all the other member states. Some of the countries outside the euro (such as Poland) had healthier budgetary policies than those in the eurozone, explained Mr Saryusz-Wolski, who also appealed for a greater coordinating role of the Commission in future economic governance. (A.B./L.G./H.B./transl.fl)