Brussels, 20/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 20 October, the European Parliament heard from the Council and the Commission on preparations for the forthcoming European Council (28-29 October) and for the G20 summit (Seoul, 11-12 November). Due to current events, the "Deauville agreement" between France and Germany on economic governance (EUROPE 10239) was the target of criticism and even sarcasm from many members of the European Parliament.
According to the president of the Council, Olivier Chastel, the proposals of Herman Van Rompuy's taskforce on economic governance, which will be central to the forthcoming European Council, represent a major “qualitative step forward” and may be implemented very quickly through legislative channels. Referring to the “other options going beyond the treaties”, Chastel went no further than to say that these issues (which “are not easy, either technically or politically”) will be discussed at the European Council. As for the summit in Seoul, its main task will be to mark an acceleration in efforts towards sustainable growth and to bring in an ambitious regime to fight climate change. As for preparations for the summits with the United States, Russia and Ukraine, Chastel stressed that these will be dealt with for the first time at the level of the heads of state and government: the focus must be on certain key points (preparations for Cancun, relaunch of the Transatlantic Economic Council, etc).
The proposals on governance must be translated into a legal reality, said the president of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso. He said that these constitute a major change from the current situation, “in order to ensure that in the future, we are better able to prepare for the threats of crisis”. The Commission “took note” of the stance of certain states in favour of a revision of the treaty: the Commission would rather concentrate on the substance for the time being, and make sure that the sanctions instrument is used only “as a last resort”. As for the G20 summit, Europe intends to work towards making it a success, amongst other things by encouraging the G20 to play a major role in concluding the Doha Round. As for Cancun, the Union is clearly a pioneer in the area of emissions reduction: it will demand that commitments become reality.
The forthcoming European Council will be dominated by the debate on governance, said Joseph Daul (EPP, France) and the EPP Group “welcomes” the initial ideas of Van Rompuy's taskforce, which in particular provide for a system of sanctions for the states not observing the criteria of the stability pact. He called, however, for “more Community method and less intergovernmental”. The Parliament is now co-legislator in defining the reforms to come. “The more the EP is involved upstream, the greater our chances of concluding satisfactorily and soon”, said Daul. At the G20, we must take position against monetary dumping and discuss three major dossiers: reform of the international monetary system, stability of raw materials (food and energy) and global governance.
Paraphrasing from the Pittsburgh G20 in 2009, Martin Schulz (S&D, Germany) described the process as good intentions which are nothing but words unless the imperative condition of economic recovery is achieved: a resumption of job-creating investments. However, following the dominant line of thinking in Europe, Martin Schulz lamented, any expenditure is bad and all we can think about is making savings, which makes social imbalances worse. The EP must propose strategies which break this tendency. Schulz was the first to express strong criticism of the “Deauville compromise” between Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, “that pair who decide on everything without taking Mr Van Rompuy's efforts into account, thereby insulting the European institutions”. Have they not glanced over the White Cliffs of Dover, do they expect David Cameron to take all of that lying down, Martin Schulz wondered.
The most important job is to seek an agreement on governance, said Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium), who pointed out that there are three existing proposals: that of the European Commission (which is good and consistent), that of the taskforce (he criticises the fact that the Council is proposing to act on the basis of recommendations rather than of the Commission's proposals) and, now, the self-styled Deauville agreement. Sometimes an agreement between two countries can help, said the former Belgian prime minister, but that is not the case here, “because the semi-automatic nature of the sanctions proposed by the Commission would disappear entirely”, he lamented. In Deauville, Verhofstadt joked, there is not just a beach, but a casino too, which means that we can talk of the “Franco-German casino compromise”, which allows the member states to continue to “gamble”. This agreement is incomprehensible and undermines the proposals of the Commission, just when the president of the ECB (Jean-Claude Trichet) has welcomed their bravery. The Parliament must overturn this compromise, said Verhofstadt to a massive round of applause, and bring back the excellent proposals of the Commission.
You all know the film Jules et Jim (Ed: which is about a love triangle), said Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens/EFA, Germany). In “our Jules et Jim”, the woman is Merkel, Jules is Sarkozy, but who is Jim? Cameron or Barroso? The Franco-German board of directors is carrying out a “non-Community” policy just when we need to be finding our way back to the Community method, Cohn-Bendit said. He concluded with an appeal: “let us oppose the permanent manipulations” of the Council, which hopes to reduce the European political dimension: our role is to strengthen and defend it.
On behalf of the ECR Group, Poland's Michal Kaminski said that he saw danger in the Franco-German pairing: the strongest countries will always have greater freedom than the others, he said.
Patrick Le Hyaric (GUE/NGL, France) spoke in favour of a “major employment policy” and of agreeing to the Chinese suggestion of an international joint currency for trade. This debate shows that the Deauville agreement “is disturbing”, as Othmar Karas (EPP, Austria) put it. (L.G./transl.fl)