Brussels, 16/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament is calling for plain speaking by EU heads of state and government in their discussions about eurozone protection mechanisms, particularly the eurobond idea (see EUROPE 10278), and the European political groups have published their position. The only body to hold a summit of heads of political groups this time around is the European Parliament.
PES - S&D (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats). In a joint statement, the Party of European Socialists (PES) and the Group of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) call for the urgent introduction of eurobonds and a European Stability Agency, describing this as the GPS system that the eurozone vehicle desperately needs. Eurobonds could replace national debts with a more stable and secure collective EU borrowing system because Europe adapting a common approach is stronger than the sum of its member states. The European socialists argue that this is the right solution given the lack of viable national responses to the problems of the international money markets. They call for the setting up of a European Stability Agency to manage the eurobonds. France and Germany's statements about eurobonds and European taxation have generated uncertainty that has been exploited by speculators, regrets Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the Danish head of PES, and Martin Schulz, the German head of S&D. They therefore urge the European Council to take action rather than listening to the conservatives in order to avoid missing yet another opportunity to get over the crisis, acting rather than reacting.
ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe). The head of ALDE, Belgium's Guy Verhofstadt, also called on EU heads of state and government to end the disagreements that have characterised 2010 and to respond to the bond crisis in the eurozone with unity and solidarity. Pointing out that temporary measures are not up to the task, Verhofstadt recommends introducing four measures to halt crises in their tracks: 1) A strengthened and energetic Stability and Growth Pact; 2) An unlimited, permanent crisis fund; 3) A eurobond market that is different from the traditional subordinated debt market; and 4) True economic and tax convergence. Permanent management of economic stability was the focus of a debate at a lunchtime meeting of the ELDR group (European Liberal Democrats) on Thursday 16 December, where the group's chair, Belgium's Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck, said that the crisis management mechanism had to be rapidly introduced to reassure and stabilise the markets. She said she was confident that the European Council would take the right decisions.
Greens/EFA. In the view of the Greens/European Free Alliance, the permanent stability mechanism is much too late and urgent action is required, including on debt restructuring and eurobonds, to respond to the crisis. The group's co-chair, Daniel Cohn-Bendit (France), said: “With the very survival of the euro at stake, it is high time for national governments to take off their national blinkers. Yes, we need stronger provisions to ensure stability, but this must go hand-in-hand with solidarity. These solidarity measures must be decisive and robust enough to definitively deter the pack of rapacious speculators that is encircling the euro. A system of eurobonds is the most logical and the most certain way to shore up the eurozone and Chancellor Merkel needs to take her head out of the sand.” The other co-chair of the Greens/EFA, Rebecca Harms (Germany), said: “While the Greens support attempts to set up a permanent stability mechanism defined under co-decision, 2013 will be far too late. We urgently need emergency measures, including provisions for debt restructuring and resolution, but also measures to prevent contagion.”
GUE. The head of the United Left Group, Germany's Lothar Bisky, said that the European Council is in the process of voting through unsatisfactory measures that only tackle the symptoms rather than the roots of the crisis. He said that one cannot simply cobble something together because a permanent financial stability mechanism has to include measures to regulate behaviour on the markets rather than introduce a tax on financial transactions and a commitment to variable social standards. Bisky said the ECB's rules had to change to enable countries to bypass banks and get loans straight from the ECB. Greece's Nikos Chountis said that the European Council was planning to introduce a permanent mechanism that will punish rather than save member states. He explained that it would plunge member states into recession and unemployment and paves the way for the scrapping of collective agreements, giving preferential treatment to banks and big business.
ECR. Deputy Chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), Timothy Kirkhope, called on heads of state and government to focus their efforts on bolstering political will to reform their economies rather than triggering a new institutional debate about Treaty changes. Kirkhope said that sanctions on EU countries that fail to live up to their Stability and Growth Pact pledges must be credible if they are to be effective. He noted that there are already procedures in place to tackle the excess deficits that were built up in the past decade, but the EU has failed to follow through with them. “The priorities of the European Council must be these: to agree a limited number of specific measures to help eurozone members to help each other through the immediate crisis (without imposing any burdens on member states that have chosen to remain outside), and then to reassert the vital importance of dealing with the long-term economic crisis we face: the risk of a permanent collapse in our economic competitiveness.” (I.L./transl.fl)