Brussels, 26/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Liberal group is preparing to throw its weight into the battle to convince its partners at the European Parliament of the need for stronger economic governance in Europe (see EUROPE 10297), even if further changes are required to the Lisbon Treaty than currently planned to allow the creation of a European Stability Mechanism (ESM) on a solid legal basis.
Automatic penalties are a crucial part of the reform package, explained the head of ALDE, Belgium's Guy Verhofstadt, on Wednesday 26 January to a handful of reporters. He said it was daft to say that the decision to penalise a eurozone country for breaking the stability and growth pact cannot be made semi-automatic, although this is the argument made by member states on the economic governance taskforce.
The Liberals are seeking ways round the legal requirement whereby the Council has to take a qualified majority decision before the launch of any excess deficit proceedings. It wants the European Commission to be authorised to suggest immediate sanctions against countries breaking the rules, said the former Belgian prime minister Verhofstadt. The Commission's suggestion would then be deemed passed unless the Council of Ministers rejects it by a reverse qualified majority. Verhofstadt pointed out that the ECB has explained that the legislation currently under discussion does not go far enough.
To make such a change possible, which would shift power from the member states to the Commission, the Liberal leader believes that a special change of Article 136 of the Lisbon Treaty might be an option. Would such an institutional change to give greater power to the Commission not require the usual ratification and the holding of referendums in some member states? It is all a matter of interpretation, said Verhofstadt bluntly, feeling that the existing Treaties might not need changing at all. The United Kingdom and Ireland say that the “simplified” revision of the Lisbon Treaty to give the ESM a legal basis did not confer any additional powers on the European Commission and therefore did not require a referendum.
Transparency. According to French MEP Sylvie Goulard, if nothing changes, then the same problems will keep on rearing their ugly heads because there is no reason for a finance minister to take a hard line against a colleague. Economic governance decisions should therefore be taken behind closed doors. The European Parliament could be an arena where every stakeholder would be able to argue their views, and even member states could be called in to explain their economic policies, said Sylvie Goulard, citing the attendance of a meeting of the special EP committee on the crisis by the Greek prime minister Georges Papandreou in March 2010 (see EUROPE 10101). (M.B./transl.fl)