Brussels, 12/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 12 September, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, defended a Europe which would take the form of a federation of nation states. “The present European Union must evolve. Let's not be afraid of the words: we will need to move towards a federation of nation states”, he said when addressing MEPs. He added that the creation of the federation “will ultimately require a new Treaty”. In his opinion, European citizens must be more involved in making the process that is under way more democratic. He said that a debate with European citizens is required. “Europe has to be ever more democratic. The role of the European Parliament is essential. This is why the European elections of 2014 can be so decisive”, he continued, adding that the Commission proposes to present a sketch for the future of the EU before the elections, “in time to have a truly European debate”. He also called for a 'Europeanisation' of the political parties.
In the opinion of the vice-president of the Greens/EFA Group, Daniel Cohn Bendit, federalisation is “a necessity”. “We need a post national Europe, not only a federation of the states”, he said, stressing the need for a real budget for Europe and a writing-off fund for populations in difficulty, especially in Greece. With this, “we will manage to turn the majority of European citizens back to Europe”, he said. In Gabi Zimmer's opinion (GUE/NGL, Germany) “what is important when we speak of the future, is the question of knowing what Europeans think, what they want, how to participate in this common future”. She called for a revision of the way to exit the crisis and argued for the introduction of a social progress clause and for an ecological and democratic Europe. Her colleague in the ALDE Group, Guy Verhofstadt from Belgium, considered that the nature of the crisis was political, born of the political inability to surge forward towards a federal union. We need a federal Union of European citizens and an economic, political and budgetary union, “that's where the solution is”, he said.
Strengthening EMU. As well as a more democratic and political Union, Barroso called for the strengthening of economic and monetary union (EMU), coupled with reforms at the national level. He said that in the autumn the Commission would present an action plan leading to a strengthened EMU. This document will identify the instruments to better coordinate the policies undertaken and to reach, eventually, a partial pooling of public debt. “We need to develop a fully equipped Community economic governance together with a genuine, credible Community fiscal capacity”, he said. In some cases, an amendment to the Treaty will be necessary, especially if the countries of the eurozone plan to jointly guarantee part of their public debt. Nevertheless, in the opinion of the former Portuguese prime minister, there is no need to create new institutions for the process to be effective and quick, the best means being to work with and through the existing institutions - the European Commission as an independent European authority, supervised by the Parliament.
Barroso spoke of the urgency for Europe to return to growth and to gain in competitiveness, by means of structural reforms. He stressed the need to complete the single market, to reduce energy dependence, to promote competitiveness in sectors such as energy, transport and telecommunications, to create a European employment market, to explore green growth, and to be more ambitious on education, research and innovation. Barroso also defended “the instrument for growth”, in other words, the European budget for 2014-2020, which is “a budget for growth, for economic, social and territorial cohesion between member states and within member states”. He therefore called on the Commission, the Parliament and “all pro-European forces” to work to defend the multiannual financial framework.
Reactions. The leader of the EPP Group, Joseph Daul from France, called for reforms and not “mini-reforms” (our translation). He supported a “credible, robust and ambitious” multiannual financial framework, called for the politicians in charge to close this file by the end of 2012, and argued for the urgent completion of the single market.
Stressing that Barroso had paid tribute to the European model, the leader of the S&D Group, Hannes Swoboda from Austria, called for a true social pact. “Europeans are not bothered about a budgetary pact. (…) We need a social pact to fight against youth unemployment, poverty among the older generation, exclusion”, he said.
In the opinion of Martin Callanan (ECR, United Kingdom), the economic crisis can be regulated short of economic decisions. He believes that Europe is a straitjacket for the least competitive countries because it prevents monetary devaluation. “The solution is for the countries to leave the euro and we will support them”, he said. The Eurosceptic Nigel Farage (EFD, United Kingdom) wants “the European dictatorship to be rejected by the European people”, and hopes that his country will call a referendum on relations between London and the EU. (CG/transl.fl)