Brussels, 16/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - Inter-institutional negotiations on the package of six legislative texts to strengthen European economic governance are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel (EUROPE 10381). Last night, the trialogue meeting (Council, European Parliament and Commission) came to a close after making substantial progress, with hope that a definitive political agreement will be reached next week. The question of the use of the decision-making procedure, known as “reverse qualified majority”, in the preventive plank of the stability and growth pact (SGP) still needs to be resolved.
One of the six European Parliament rapporteurs, Sylvie Goulard (ALDE, France) declared: “Discussions have made good progress on a great many points”. Given the situation in Greece, she said that it would be a very good thing to send out the message that an agreement was within reach. One diplomat explained that “we will find a solution”, there is only one point that still needs to be discussed. The Council will examine this dossier on Friday at ambassadors' level, in view of the Ecofin Council on Monday 20 June in Luxembourg. The EP's economic and monetary affairs committee will do likewise on Monday. It is not out of the question that a final trialogue will be planned for Tuesday 21 June. If a political agreement is reached, the EP will formally approve the compromise during the mini-plenary session on 22--23 June, a few hours before the European Council's deadline of the end of June to finish up on this dossier.
“Reverse QMV”. Final negotiations will focus on the extent of recourse to the decision-making procedure known as “reverse qualified majority voting”. Using this procedure, a decision would be made unless a qualified majority of countries opposed it. Contrary to the Council (apart from Benelux countries), the EP is in favour of all the stages of all the procedures of the SGP so that decision-making is made automatic. Given that it has not totally succeeded in its objective, particularly because the Treaty limits its room for manoeuvre, the EP requests that as part of the preventive dimension of this pact, “reverse qualified majority voting” might be used in two cases. Goulard said that it was necessary to stop countries entering into a horse-trading dynamic. Following a Franco-German agreement reached last autumn in Deauville, member states will, nonetheless, maintain their political grip on matters, which will enable them to demand qualified majority voting and to take corrective measures for rectifying their respective budgetary difficulties and/or macro-economic problems. Although they consider that future rules do not allow for enough room for manoeuvre for long-term growth investments, groups from the Left at the EP might be tempted to vote against the reports on budgetary rules, as they did in the parliamentary committee (EUROPE 10363).
Several delegations were caught on the back foot (EUROPE 10398) when the Hungarian Presidency agreed for “qualified averse majority voting” to be used at two levels of the new macro-economic imbalance procedure: to compel a state infringing the rules to make a monetary deposit and to indicate that a country has not carried out the necessary corrective measures.
Indicators. The two co-legislative institutions agreed on the procedure for developing the Commission scoreboard that the latter will use for analysing member states' macro-economic situations. The Commission will draw from the list of indicators included in the texts to help prevent real estate bubbles or follow developments affecting member states' current account developments. The request made by MEPs to proceed by way of a delegated act to develop the scoreboard was rejected by the Council, which claimed that this would be too onerous a procedure. Our diplomatic source indicated that “the EP got as much as it could from a political and legal point of view” on this question. He believed that the use of a delegated act would have a negative effect on the institutional balance included in the Treaty.
Economic dialogue. Member states will be able to take part in an economic dialogue at the EP, based on the monetary dialogue already in place. The member states are eager to protect their sovereignty and are refusing to be summoned to explain themselves. Included in all the texts of this legislative package, the economic dialogue clause rules out that the member states alone can be given a hearing, explained Goulard, who rejected any attempt by the EP to interfere in the remit of the member states.
MEPs succeeded in obtaining a new sanction to be applied in cases of statistical data fraud. It will be up to the Commission to prove that a country has provided erroneous information, as was the case with Greece. A country deemed guilty will be subject to a financial penalty that could be as much as 0.2% of its GDP. It should be noted that the legislative text will enhance the independence of the national statistical bodies and that the Commission will be able to proceed to evaluation missions in each of the member states.
Eurobonds. Goulard was delighted that the report contained a clause calling on the Commission to tackle the question of eurobonds by the end of this year. The Commission will also make a declaration in which it will make a commitment to examining the feasibility of these famous eurobonds. The Council downplayed this issue and said that it did not mean that any commitments had been made in this respect. Germany is still opposed to any reference being made to eurobonds, which it believes will send out the wrong signal. (M.B./transl.fl)