Brussels, 25/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - From one European Council to the next, the European Parliament wants to have its say on decisions dealing with the economic crisis. In a debate on Tuesday 25 October, MEPs recommended a stronger bailout fund and for banks to become less leveraged in a healthy and sustainable manner.
Opening a brief debate on progress in European Council negotiations over the economic crisis, the president of the European Parliament (EP), Jerzy Buzek, said that the EP was also “the parliament of the Eurozone”. The European Council on Wednesday 26 October has three issues to deal with - reducing the Greek debt burden, getting European banks out of debt (the EP wants to have its say in this connection) and protecting struggling European economies. In the more immediate term, said Buzek, progress must be monitored and it was important to shift from decision-making among governments (intergovernmentalism) to use of the Commnunity method. In the longer-term, there was the question of whether the European treaty would need to be altered. We need to decide what kind of changes we want, he said, calling for unity and coherence.
On Sunday, there was no news at all about the summit, explained Dutch MEP Corien Wortmann-Kool on behalf of the EPP, noting that later on, the only news there was was described as “leaks”. She said it was perfectly understandable that at a time when people's jobs are in danger and the euro is under attack, then people feel anxious and wonder whether Europe is capable of problem-solving. The debt crisis may have started in the member states, she said, but it affects everyone and everyone will benefit from the single currency, the strengthening of the EFSF (European Financial Stability Fund) recapitalisating banks, all of which are crucial for a genuine solution to the crisis. Wortmann-Kool called for a strong EFSF and the guarantee that it would be independent of the European Central Bank. She warned that there was a danger of the crisis spreading and deleveraging the banks must be accompanied by responsible management, a rectification of past excesses and proper financial market regulation. Should the EU intervene in its member states' budgets? That would require a debate on economic and budget integration in Europe, she said, and possibly changes to the EU treaty.
For once, Wednesday's European Council may deserve the epithet “historic”, a word too often bandied about. This at least is the hope of the head of the S&D Group, Germany's Martin Schulz, who admits to often criticising the fragmentation of the EU into three groups - the Franco-German “decision-makers”, the eurozone and the rest. This fragmentation is very dangerous, warned Schulz, because too many countries are dependent on domestic politics and their electorate and the European spirit evaporates. He gave the example of Slovakia, along with other, un-named, member states which followed nationalistic interests and were jeopardising the survivial of the euro. It's time for all that to end, he said, slamming the cobbling together of unnecessary new institutions and urging member states to stop abusing people's trust. People were getting fed up of decisions being announced, but not applied and then the whole rigmarole being repeated with strings of press conferences about things that have not been agreed upon(a veiled allusion to Merkel and Sarkozy). Schulz suggested that the heads of state and government meet up for as long as needed to reach real decisions but avoid undermining the EP's powers (if Europe is to be allowed to intervene in member states' budgets, then the EP wants to have its say). He called on Hermann Van Rompuy to report back to the EP.
The head of the ALDE Group, Belgium's Guy Verhofstadt, said that on Thursday 27 October he would suggest that the Conference of Presidents of the EP should invite the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and the chair of Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker, to attend the EP's plenary in November to talk about economic governance in the eurozone. He said he had the impression that after 20 months of hesitation, they have finally understood that a big plan is needed to make the eurozone secure and a roadmap is required to this end. All that is needed, said Verhofstadt, is to use most of the seven measures identified in a report adopted by a landslide at the European Parliament. He urged Buzek to point out to the heads of state at their summit on Wednesday that the focus of their work should be strengthening the bailout fund. He sarcastically commented that suggestions were already circulating, but not at the EP, instead in member states and at the Bundestag (which is due to vote
tomorrow). Former Belgian prime minsiter Verhofstadt also had a proposal - he said it was three and a half pages setting out a complicated system that would need to be read through a few times to understand. He wondered whether it could really work to calm nerves on the markets - giving 20% guarantees for all the bonds issued by struggling countries' obligations. Verhofstadt said it was clear that the solution lay in a truly European bond market.
This feels to me like Europe after the Vienna Congress, said Czech MEP Jan Zahradil on behalf of the ECR. Back then, people talked about a concert of powers, but these days there's a chancellor and a president telling a prime minister to shut up… He said that as ever, it was the taxpayers who had to cough up for the irresponsible behaviour of governments, banks and speculators. Zahradil said that Europeanising the debt could only be a short-term solution and it had to be said openly (rather than behind the scenes) that the euro was not for everyone.
The approach decided for Greece is a mistake, said co-president of the Greens/EFA, Germany's Rebecca Harms, with not enough cash being provided from the bailout fund the first time round and demanding austerity measures that could only destroy the economy. Crisis summits are not the answer and a different message needs to be given to Greece and other countries in the form of a reconstruction plan based on sustainability and credible planning. The increases in the EFSF should suffice and banks will need to recapitalise faster than planned if Dexia is to remain an isolated incident. Member states' budgets need rectifying, said Harms, suggesting that a Convention be set up to consider the fate of Economic Europe and the economic and monetary affairs commissioner be given greater powers. There is no need to fear voters, she said, if one wants to tackle the crisis head-on.
In the same spirit, the head of the GUE/NGL Group, Germany's Lothar Bisky, criticised the chaotic way the crisis was being dealt with because only radical measures could halt speculation and creative accounting would lead nowhere. Bisky said Greek banks must not be allowed to fail and ordinary people's savings and salaries needed to be protected.
Co-president of the EFD Group, Italy's Francesco Speroni, said that the financial crisis was merely proof of Europe's inability to work properly and the crisis must not be used as an excuse for taking powers away from the nation state and handing them to Brussels. (LG/transl.fl)