Brussels, 07/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 7 November in an address to the European Parliament, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that boosting economic and monetary union (EMU) would not lead to a two-speed Europe and the eurozone was not an elitist club. She recommended that greater budget surveillance powers be given to Europe, while allowing countries room for manoeuvre on tax and employment issues. She said the problems encountered with setting up a eurozone bank surveillance system, under the aegis of the ECB, demonstrated the importance of going for quality rather than speed. Several MEPs criticised Germany's rejection of any pooling of eurozone debt and Germany's call for Europe to be competitive, while rejecting the idea of a big enough EU budget to be able to boost investment.
Merkel said that the sceptical image of Europe among its international partners had to be fought and Europe had to become competitive with the rest of the world again. To this end, along with structural reforms in member states, Germany wants to correct the EMU design faults that enabled eurozone nations to accumulate debt without a rap over the knuckles and for economic imbalances to grow despite the creation of a single currency. Merkel said the Commission must be given greater powers to monitor nations' budgets and there must be coordination of national economic policies because in the eurozone, the loss of any one country's competitiveness affects all the others too. The German chancellor suggested that a special eurozone budget could be used to help countries introduce reforms - an idea challenged by Rebecca Harms (Greens/EFA, Germany). Merkel said that on the financial side of EMU, it was vital for the new eurozone bank supervisory body to be “operational” before any direct bank bailouts occurred.
Budget. Angela Merkel said the EU's multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2014-2020 was a sine qua non for growth, but every euro paid out had to achieve value-added in terms of growth and jobs. The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said the European Parliament was prepared to fight for a balanced MFF and did not rule out the idea of a European Parliament veto. Joseph Daul (EPP, France) warned that it was not possible to get more Europe with less money.
Hannes Swoboda (S&D, Austria) and Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium) criticised Merkel for refusing to consider common action to reduce the interest rates charged by the money markets for countries that are introducing the recommended reforms but still finding it difficult to roll over their debt. “Austerity is a killer!” said Gabriele Zimmer (GUE/NGL, Germany) and Nigel Farage (EFD, UK), said it was time for the United Kingdom to leave Europe. (MB and LC/transl.fl)