Brussels, 01/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - Taking the view that the Franco-German pairing and the Polish and Danish Presidencies of the Council of Ministers of the EU are reacting with “confusion” and a certain amount of “panic” to the nature and scope of changes needed to be made to the European Treaty, the MEP Andrew Duff (ALDE, United Kingdom) presented the press on Thursday 1 December with an agenda for a Convention for which he is calling, which he would like to see from March to September.
Duff has once again argued in favour of creating federal economic governance with, amongst other things, common budget policies, to save the European Union and bring back confidence.
Economic governance. Amongst other things, Duff is calling for: - the appointment of the Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs to the post of Treasury Secretary, who would be directly elected by the EP (as would the High Representative of the EU and the President of the Commission); - the ban on the ECB extending credit to countries (last-resort lender) to be lifted and for the Bank to be given new powers to authorise the issuing of eurobonds; - the competencies of the Court of Justice of the EU to be extended to budgetary policies; - a change to Article 125 to allow sovereign debt to be pooled; - the Commission's powers to be tightened up as regards recommendations to countries to correct public deficits; - the creation of a (euro)group of MEPs with the authority to legislate in the field of tax laws.
Political legitimacy. Duff once again argued in favour of creating a category of EU countries for those which do not want a federal Europe and the creation of a pan-European constituency for certain MEPs to be elected. He stressed that the new treaty (approved by all countries) would enter into force once ratified by just 4/5 of the member states (rather than unanimously).
Maros Sefcovic, Commissioner for Interinstitutional Relations, noted on Thursday 1 December at a CEPS conference (Centre for European Policy Studies) that it was quite hard to believe that Treaty change was again under consideration, only two years after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. But, he acknowledged, Europe has changed since then. “It has become abundantly clear that more integration will be needed to make Europe stronger. And to deliver greater integration, we may need to look again at limited changes to the Treaty.” But he recognised that this process of change is slow, painstaking and not without risk. And in no way should this option be presented as a quick solution to the current crisis, he concluded. (LC/transl.fl)