How can one use powers one does not have? I am curious about a new way of criticising the EU that consists of taking the EU to task for not making proper use of powers that it has not been given! The criticism takes the form of asking why the EU doesn't take spectacular military initiatives but the EU does not have the power to do so. Despite the progress made by the Lisbon Treaty, security and defence policy remain largely in the hands of the nation states and are regulated anyway by the unanimous voting rule at EU level. José Manuel Barroso is right to point out to the party at the European Parliament that is attacking the other EU institutions for not launching air strikes on Libya that “some criticisms are to be made to governments rather than the EU”.
Why can't Guy Verhofstadt understand this? In his own country, he was one of the most pro-EU ministers in the history of European unification and as an MEP he backs all important positions and is often the man behind important approaches, bringing life to the debate. He ended his address to the plenary on 16 March by saying that he was no longer counting on the EU, but rather on France and the UK, to take action against the mad Libyan colonel. He was not wrong to mention those two countries but he is wrong to have a go at the EU because in order for the EU to be able to act, it would have had to have been given greater powers at the very time when Verhofstadt himself was a prime minister. Herman Van Rompuy pointed out that the European Council was still working very hard to get international intervention in Libya, but the EU has limited powers. Operational decisions have been made in the meantime, but it is not the fault of the Commission and the European Council that the EU as a body has not been able to decide on the matter.
Criticising the EU for not using powers that is does not actually have amounts to rabble-rousing, which might be useful if it served as an impetus behind a greater defence Europe, for which the Lisbon Treaty includes options for further progress. If that occurs, then thank you Guy Verhofstadt, but that does not alter the fact that your accusations, irrespective of your public speaking prowess, are factually wrong.
The EP will play its part in defence of the euro. The European Parliament will play its full role when some of its political groups criticise the outcome of the European Council, Eurogroup or the Economic and Finance Council when it comes to economic governance and discipline in the eurozone. This is part of its job because it is a co-legislator for application regulations and its agreement is required for the approval of such legislation. It is understandable that some political groups feel that the now historical informal summit of eurozone countries did not go far enough. In their view, the pact for the euro is too vague because it simply mentions various aspects without giving tangible guidelines. For example, the tax on financial transactions is only mentioned as an option to be looked into (although some small progress has been made because for the first time, the idea of Europe introducing such a tax, without waiting for a decision at global level, has been mentioned). Moreover, the not very tangible nature of the pact for the euro is, it would seem, an opinion shared by the president of Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker, whose job it is to manage the development of the application regulations…
The EPP Group is wholly in favour however, praising both the outcome of the heads of state and government meeting and the finance ministers' meeting. The debate at the European Parliament this week began negotiating some of the issues to be covered in the upcoming talks between the EP and the Council of Ministers.
Ireland: Harmony or conflict? Meanwhile, the European Commission's draft legislation on the tax base for calculating company tax has been published. Its importance was highlighted by EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta recently (see EUROPE 10338). Over and above its economic importance, the legislation will have a very significant knock-on effect in the political world and could lead to an easing of the differences between Ireland and the other eurozone member states about the strings attached to its recent aid package, but that remains to be seen and people are even talking about enhanced cooperation among the other member states to pass the legislation on harmonised calculation of company tax. Hopefully this will not be needed.
(F.R./transl.fl)