Brussels, 07/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - Should the countries of the EU come to the rescue of a fellow member state in financial difficulty? What can be done to help the democratic transition in the Southern Mediterranean and to provide responses to the problem of illegal immigration? Solidarity is central to the events impacting on Europe, said Jean-Yves Le Drian, President of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) in the Azores on Friday 3 June. The political bureau of the CPMR organised a debate on European solidarity, and this includes regional solidarity - a concept sometimes challenged though it is enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty.
The Greek, Portuguese and Irish regions are bearing the brunt of impact of austerity plans, several maritime regions, such as Sicily, the Canaries and Malta, have to deal on a daily basis with migrants from Africa, and other regions are in the firing line on the issue of the closure of border controls. The CPMR is “right at the heart of a range of new events and serious questions on the future of the EU. This is a new responsibility we have to bear. The reference to European solidarity should be our guiding star in stormy times”, stated Le Drian.
Former President of the Portuguese Republic Mario Soares said he was unhappy that the principle of solidarity was being put in doubt. He stated: “As a convinced Europeanist, I believe that solidarity is one of the basic principles of the European Union and crucial to taking Europe forward”. He said that this principle of solidarity among countries is being “questioned by the strongest countries”. Germany is acting as if it was in charge of Europe, Soares lamented.
Jérôme Vignon, Director of France's National Observatory on Poverty and Social Exclusion (ONPES) and of the Observatory on Fuel Poverty (OPE), suggested setting up a European social investment pact (job creation, social housing, childcare) to go along with the Stability and Growth Pact. He proposed, too, that the Stability and Growth Pact should exempt what is given to social investment when calculating public deficits. He opined that the 12 projects launched by European Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier for the 2012 single market were “very promising”. He noted, however, that in the energy and environment area there were very few joint projects. He said that putting real own resources in place for the EU budget “would certainly be a step in the right direction, especially if it was taxation of certain financial flows related to the free movement of capital”.
While territorial solidarity cannot be called into question in so far as it contributes to the common “competitiveness effort”, it can, especially in a period of budgetary restriction, be wondered, however, what the regions would be willing to put on the table in return for benefiting from European solidarity, the CPMR says in a note. It mentions “a certain ex-ante conditionality”, the partnership principle of which must be an integral part (introduction of the territorial pacts advocated by the CPMR), but there should be no macro-economic conditionality. This conditionality, also known as external conditionality, would link the Stability and Growth Pact and cohesion policy (see EUROPE 10392 for the CPMR debate on conditionality). (L.C./transl.rt)