Brussels, 04/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Socialists and Democrats at the European Parliament (EP) fear that the report on the work of the troika by the EP's economic and monetary affairs committee, might be hampered by lack of cooperation from the troika and also from the EPP Group, which is co-chairing the enquiry. A meeting of the rapporteurs takes place this Thursday.
At the end of October, the announcement of an investigation by the EP of the work of the troika (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) in countries in receipt of financial aid was on a high and received quite wide media coverage (see EUROPE 10958). It did not take long for the EP's economic and monetary affairs committee to summon troika representatives from the Commission and ECB to a hearing (see EUROPE 10958), but on Tuesday 3 December, one of the two rapporteurs, Liem Hoang Ngoc (S&D, France) issued a press release calling on the two institutions to cooperate in the drawing up of the report. By telephone on Wednesday 4 December, Hoang Ngoc explained that, despite the desire expressed to hold public hearings next week, both institutions turned down the investigation, preferring to wait until they have provided written answers to questions sent on 22 November before speaking out in public, probably in January. It is not year clear whether the director general of the European Stability Mechanism, Klaus Regling, will be able to attend because of timetable clashes. All three troika institutions said on Wednesday that they were committed to cooperating in the investigation.
The problem lies within the EP itself, where there is disagreement on how the investigation should be carried out and what the aims of it are. Hoang Ngoc said that Othmar Karas (PPE, Austria), co-rapporteur on this issue, had refused to join his Socialist co-rapporteur's press release appeal on Tuesday, saying it would have been better to issue a joint press release. Karas himself is not very cooperative, groaned Hoang Ngoc, pointing out that the Austrian did not want an investigation in the first place and was planning to make the troika a European Community body. The rapporteurs will be meeting on Thursday, when a hearing will take place of two economists from the Bruegel think tank. The EPP is reported to be in disagreement with the names suggested for interviews as part of the investigation, but Karas refused to comment. A close source said it was not good for Hoang Ngoc to have spoken to the media the way he did. Hoang Ngoc called for the investigation to be carried out transparently. The EPP warns that no conclusions can be drawn before all the stakeholders have been heard and there is therefore no point in issuing statements ahead of time.
Both sides are sticking with 17 december as the date for lodging the draft report. Questionnaires have been sent out (with 27 questions) and are due back by 12 December. It is possible that investigations will be carried out in countries in receipt of aid in January. The EP's report on the troika's work should therefore avoid the fate of the investigation promised by the European Commission in June, which seems to have disappeared into thin air. (EL/transl.fl)