Brussels, 23/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 22 October, the European Parliament adopted its negotiating position on the European Semester budget process for 2014.
The European economy will not pick up until the oft repeated promises are turned into reality, said Parliament rapporteur for the European Semester, Elisa Ferreira (S&D, Portugal), noting the importance of social and economic policy recommendations being adapted to meet the specifics of each country and socially justified. She pointed out that, despite the many sacrifices being demanded, there had been no improvement in people's lives.
On behalf of the member states, Lithuanian Deputy European Affairs Minister Vytautas Leskevicius hailed progress in the budget process since 2012, but said a lot remained to be done in order to improve implementation in the member states. The Council of Ministers will be submitting to the European Summit later this week a document on lessons to be learned from application of the European Semester.
Earlier in a debate on the European Summit on 24 and 25 October (see related article), the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, regretted the shortcomings in terms of member state ownership of the social and economic policy recommendations. Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn urged the member states to continue with the strategy of resolving the crisis on the basis of budget consolidation, structural reform and cleaning up the financial sector to ensure the green shoots of recovery continue in 2014 and the unemployment figures are brought down. He said that for France, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, the recommendation was to slow down consolidation of the financial sector as long as the countries focus on implementing structural reforms.
On behalf of the EP's budgets committee, Catherine Trautmann (S&D, France) criticised the EPP and ALDE for rejecting the plan to exclude public investment from the public deficit figures. Philippe Lamberts (Greens/EFA, Belgium) said that one job was not enough to guarantee a decent income these days. Every year, some 5 million people in Europe fall below the poverty line and there are 7 million working poor in Germany. Marisa Matias (GUE/NGL, Portugal) slammed the “salary massacre” going on in Europe. Jean-Paul Gauzès (EPP, France) said that the signs of recovery in the EU were proof that the guidelines were starting to bear fruit. (MB/transl.fl)