Brussels, 17/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee will publish a report on Wednesday on the work of the troika of lenders (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) in countries in receipt of financial aid. The two EP rapporteurs, Othmar Karas (EPP, Austria) and Liem Hoang Ngoc (S&D, France) have had to curtail their ambitions slightly because some of those questioned in writing did not meet the 12 December deadline for their responses.
The EPP says that this delay in responding is not really a handicap because the document available at this stage will serve as the basis for talks at the EP and the final report can include information not yet received, along with details culled during visits to the countries in question, the dates of which have now been confirmed. EP monitoring missions will take place in Portugal, Greece and Cyprus in the week of 6 to10 January, and then in mid-January there will be a hearing at the economic and monetary affairs committee of EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, former head of the ECB Jean-Claude Trichet, and the director general of the eurozone's bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, Klaus Regling.
Welcoming the fact that the report had been published as scheduled on 17 December, Othmar Karas said: “The Troika is a stop-gap. It is based on the collaboration of governments, but not in EU law. In the future, transparency, parliamentarian scrutiny and democratic legitimacy must be guaranteed. We need to initiate the next steps as soon as possible to bring the Troika on level with EU law. This cannot work without a change in the European Treaties. It is for this reason that I call for a European Convention as quickly as possible”. The aim is greater accountability of the troika, parliamentary scrutiny and democratic legitimacy of the work of the troika in countries that request financial aid from the eurozone.
Thus far, the European Parliament has managed to quiz representatives of the IMF only once, in July 2013, about the bailout for Cyprus. The IMF's rules and regulations stipulate that it must know in advance what it is to expect in a parliamentary hearing and that such meetings must take place behind closed doors. There have been recent calls for the IMF to leave the troika, but some countries, like Germany, view its presence as important. In the most recent aid programme (for Cyprus) the IMF restricted its financial aid to 10% of the total. The treaty setting up the European Stability Mechanism makes explicit reference to IMF involvement in aid plans. (EL/transl.fl)