Brussels, 23/01/2013 (Agence Europe) -On Tuesday 22 January 2013, the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee rejected by a close majority (19 to 21) the draft report by Elisa Ferreira (S&D, Portugal) on the European Commission's Annual Growth Review that kicks off the “European Semester” process (see EUROPE 10741).
If the report had been approved along with the tabled amendments, the message would have been in total contradiction with the current situation but the EP has a responsibility to communicate with the general public, Ferreira told this newsletter. She said the message to be got across was that the European Commission must change its way of assessing the macroeconomic impact of recommended measures without completely challenging the need for healthy public finances. The room for manœuvre available in the Stability and Growth Pact must be utilised, she said, to ease up on the catching-up timeline. Ferreira wondered why it was that countries that have implemented all the EU's budget recommendations and structural reforms had not actually achieved what was expected of them.
The International Monetary Fund admitted recently that it had got its austerity calculations wrong for the eurozone, causing far greater recession than expected (three times greater).
Jean-Paul Gauzès is the EPP negotiator for this matter. He regrets that the draft report, which met the Christian Democrat expectations, was not approved because two S&P and two ADLE MEPs had left the meeting early. The S&D group says that austerity policies are useless, explained Gauzès, regretting the fact that Social Democrats were not showing any flexibility.
The committee chair, Sharon Bowles (ADLE, UK), urged the political parties to get back to the negotiating table and vote on an amended report. (MB/transl.fl)