Brussels, 22/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Shadow Council of the Spinelli Group met for the first time on Tuesday 22 March in Brussels, and recommended that the EU heads of state who will be meeting in Brussels on Thursday 24 and Friday 25 March take a different approach to economic governance from the one recommended thus far. The Spinelli Group says the pact for the euro will not restore the EU to economic growth and will not make the eurozone stable because it is not only financial discipline that is required but also an investment offensive (€4,000 billion over 10 years).
The Shadow Council aims to set out what the official European Council should put in its conclusions document but would “defend the European interest”, as one of the founders of the Spinelli Group, Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium), put it. Verhofstadt says that so far, the European Council has been using the intergovernmental approach, which essentially consists of enhanced cooperation among EU member states, but a different approach is needed, namely the federal and Community approach whereby it is the European Commission, scrutinised by the European Parliament, that should deal with economic management of the eurozone and the EU as a whole. Verhofstadt explains that the intergovernmental method simply does not work.
The Spinelli Group's Shadow Council has devised a three-pronged plan to be introduced immediately by the EU: 1) A European Action Plan for the Future: Investing €4,000 billion over the next 10 years (€400bn a year) in infrastructure, scientific research and greening of the European economy, funded by project bonds issued on the EU market by the private and public sectors; 2) Federal legislation on economic governance. Verhofstadt said there was no need for a pact among member states to coordinate the EU's economic policies but what is needed is economic governance as defined by the European Commission and based on a convergence code, whereby member states would be able to reform, update and adjust their economies in the field of tax, pensions system, investment policy and pay policy. A bond market needs to be set up for the EU27 and the eurozone, where member states with the highest credit rating (AAA) would benefit from good interest rates. The European Stability Mechanism that is to be set up should be able to invest on the secondary market as well as the primary market. 3) Setting up a European bank mechanism in the EU. (L.C./transl.fl)