Brussels, 19/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 18 October, the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said that some of the ideas being discussed at the summit contain the risk of divisions, particularly the 4+1 group's report.
The key to success in Europe is the community method and it therefore makes no sense, in the current debate about reform of the treaty, said Schulz, to try to reinvent the wheel. Above all, it makes no sense to create new unions and parallel institutions. The integrity of the existing EU institutions has to be guaranteed, and that goes for governance of the euro as well.
On banking union, the European Parliament says it should be discussed and worked upon using the normal legislative procedure, explained Schulz, adding that the division between euro and non-euro countries does not work in practice. In light of the close inter-dependence of EU countries, uniform bank surveillance should be introduced and that is why the European Parliament is stressing the integration of member states that are not yet in the euro, but which are required to do so under the terms of their membership of the EU.
On the future role of the ECB when it comes to bank supervision, this must be clearly separated from its role as a central bank, said Schulz. As a bank supervisor, the ECB must be accountable to the Parliament.
The interim report of the 4+1 group under Herman Van Rompuy talks about the long-term aim of a budget for the eurozone. If this is used to stabilise the eurozone in the same way as partial pooling of debt or a bank licence for the ESM, then this would be a step in the right direction, says Schulz; but it must not be a separate budget alongside and separate from the EU27 budget, and unity of the EU27 must be assured.
Schulz recommends boosting parliamentarianism to give greater democratic legitimacy to decisions taken at EU level. In this connection, the Parliament calls, in the Thyssen report, for bodies like the troika, the presidency of the ESM and the future bank supervisory mechanism of ECB to report back to the European Parliament regularly.
When it comes to the troika, which demands tough and serious measures and is seen as an anonymous force, said Schulz, there is a legal grounding for making the ECB and European Commission accountable, but this becomes tricky when it comes to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). That said, Schulz points out that the recent challenges to IMF policy provide a good reason for holding new talks with the IMF about its approach.
If the powers of the Economic and Monetary Union Commissioner are to be increased, then he should also be made more accountable to the European Parliament. Schultz said that the ideas coming from Berlin and Paris about stronger powers for the Commissioner were not as contradictory as all that because France wants greater powers for the head of Eurogroup, whereas Germany wants greater powers for the Euro Commissioner; and the budget pact foresees a greater role for the European Commission in ensuring respect of the Maastricht criteria.
The process of boosting regulation of the financial markets is on hold at the moment, according to the Parliament. The Council of Ministers is blocking moves to cap ban bonuses. At the G20 Summit in London, it was decided to put an end to tax havens, but the Lamberts Report on investment capital is being blocked by the EU Council of Ministers because there is no agreement on exactly what defines a tax haven, said Schulz, adding that the savings tax directive was also being blocked. The European Parliament wants to ban high-speed trading, restrict commodity speculation, ban dark pools and ensure that hard cash finds its way to the real funding rather than being used by speculators to boost their profits. (LC and EL/transl.fl)