Brussels, 02/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - Adopting a report by Pervenche Berès (S&D, France) on Thursday 1 December, the European Parliament called for greater EP scrutiny of eurozone governance at both national and eurozone level, arguing that strengthening coordination and surveillance of economic policy at EU level should be based on strong solidarity and democratic legitimacy.
In practice, the EP wants to have its say on the economic policy directions emerging from the European Commission's examination of national budget plans and economic reform. In a debate on her report on Wednesday 30 November, Berès said that the EP believed that under the European semester and examination of the Annual Growth Report unveiled by the Commission to kick-start the process, the European Parliament should be able to intervene. The president of the European Parliament was asked to take this message to the European leaders at the spring European Council meetings on economic issues. Berès said the EP was considering meeting with national parliament representatives ahead of the spring summit to coordinate views.
Under the impetus of the Liberals, the revised Stability and Growth Pact introduces economic dialogue in which the member states can be invited to explain their economic and budget policy plans to the European Parliament.
Using a Convention to change the Treaty. Berès said the EP had already been consulted over revision of the EU Treaty to introduce the European Stability Mechanism (bailout fund), at which point it had agreed to a change to the Treaty without a Convention being set up. She said that the EP would not agree to any further changes to the Treaty, given the issues likely to be involved, without a Convention to generate EU value-added and democratic legitimacy. She said that the timing and content of any changes to the Treaty must be discussed with the European Parliament and it was not enough to simply get a European Court of Justice sitting to endorse the conversion of economic policy into competition policy. (LC/transl.fl)