Brussels, 19/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - Socialist governments and MEPs are opposing the contractual agreements due to be discussed during the meeting of European heads of state and governments on 19-20 December.
The S&D Group in the European Parliament asserted that it would categorically and unambiguously rejected these agreements, stated the group's Austrian leader Hannes Swoboda. These agreements would tie member states and the European Commission together “politically” in a way that would put in place the reforms recommended in the European Semester (with financial incentives). European Socialists see this as a dissolving of the community method. Swoboda said that this “circumvents the community method and adds another layer of bureaucracy to remove member states' sovereignty by way of a softly-softly approach, which is the opposite of what Europe should do”. The president of the Party of European Socialists, Sergei Stanishev, the Bulgarian Prime Minister, said that he shared this concern. At the end of the meeting with his Socialist counterparts before the summit, he compared these contractual agreements to the working methods imposed on countries subject to “bail out” conditions. He warned that the approach would bring nothing but “frustration” and advocated a cautious approach to these bilateral agreements. According to him, the success of “shared responsibility” with regard to the EU's economic well-being, had to be measured, above all, by increased job creation. (MD/transl.fl)