Brussels, 02/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - During a debate at the European Parliament on Tuesday 2 July on the outcome of the European summit (see EUROPE 10877), the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, announced the creation of an expert group that will look into the feasibility of pooling sovereign debt in the eurozone and report back by March 2014.
“I'd like to announce that, following our commitment towards the European Parliament as part of the overall agreement on the two-pack, the Commission is now setting up the expert group to look into all merits and risks, the legal requirements and the financial consequences of initiatives of joint issuance of debt in the form of a redemption fund and eurobills”, said Barroso. The experts will be chaired by the former head of the European Central Bank's Executive Board, Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell of Austria, and will include the following experts: Agnès Bénassy-Quéré (of the Cercle Français des Economistes), Vítor Bento (former director of the Portuguese treasury), Graham Bishop (a British expert who has published research on eurobills), Claudia Buch (a German economist), Lex Hoogduin (a Dutch economist), Jan Mazak (of Slovakia), Belén Romana (head of SAREB, the Spanish “bad bank”), Ingrid Simonyte (former Lithuanian finance minister), Vesa Vihriala (director of Finnish research institute ETLA), Beatrice Weder di Mauro (a Swiss economist on the board of UBS). The creation of this expert group is largely due to the efforts of the EPP at the European Parliament, which has long been battling with the member states on this very issue.
MEPs have reacted to the European summit's decisions on tackling youth unemployment, financing small business, banking union and the multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2014-2020. We have to put a stop to these austerity policies, said the leader of the S&D Group, Hannes Swoboda, recommending a strong social dimension to boost economic and monetary union that monitors changes in poverty levels in the European Union. On behalf of the Liberals, Belgium's Guy Verhofstadt regretted that all details about banking union (particularly the future bank resolution mechanism that Barroso says will be unveiled over the next fortnight) were removed from the summit's conclusions document, which only talked of generalities because the member states only agree on a vague idea of banking union. Without it, however, he pointed out that no money would reach small businesses in Europe, irrespective of the involvement of the EIB. Rebecca Harms of the Greens/EFA said the biggest problem at present was the recession that was devastating the economy in southern Europe. To stimulate the economy, Martin Callanan (ECR, United Kingdom) called for a more open market, less red tape and less Europe. Talking of a “European Empire” that had placed its flag over Croatia, Nigel Farage (ELD, UK) said that the European elections in 2014 would provide an opportunity to demonstrate that the European project was reversible. Philip Claeys (non-attached, Belgium) said that the EU wasn't punishing Turkey - it was rewarding it (referring to the promised re-opening of talks about Turkey joining the EU).
Budget. Talking about the EU's budget for 2014-2020, the leader of the EPP Group, Joseph Daul (France), said he was fed up with horse trading among the member states. He refused to accept a budget too small to pay the bills and welcomed the flexibility introduced to adjust the MFF over the course of the next seven years. He hoped that the European institutions would begin working in 2014 on a genuine budget to finance the areas of activity where Europe provides real value-added. The fight goes on, warned Verhoftstadt, mentioning flexibility issues for various budget headings, various years and the question of own resources. On behalf of the GUE/NGL, Germany's Gabriele Zimmer slammed the budget deal, asking what was the point of flexibility if it only carries forward deficits from one year to the next, adding that with only €6 billion for young people, what on earth could be properly financed? (MB/transl.fl)