Brussels, 28/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - James Watson of BusinessEurope has welcomed the troika intervention in countries in receipt of aid, arguing that tough choices were inevitable and in some cases should have been taken a long time ago. He was speaking on Monday 27 January at a public hearing with the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee and the employment and social affairs committee. Veronika Nilsson of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) said that it was important to bear in mind that this was basically a bank crisis that had turned into a sovereign debt crisis.
Portuguese MEP Diogo Feio (EPP) asked whether there were any studies into what would have happened without the troika's intervention. Watson (United Kingdom) added that this was the basic question that needed to be asked. Quizzed by Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany) on their recommendations for stimulating growth, Watson a recommended completing the single market in services and cutting the administrative burden. Nilsson feared that the second measure might be an attack on workers' rights, adding that the first thing that needed to be got rid of was austerity. Watson said that BusinessEurope was in favour of banking union and bank bail-ins, but for Cyprus, some BusinessEurope members had pointed out the considerable impact on Cypriot businesses. Othmar Karas (EPP, Austria), co-rapporteur on the EP's investigation into the troika's work, who was unable to attend the hearing in person (another MEP spoke for him) said that the social partners had to be more involved in the aid plans. Fellow co-rapporteur Liem Hoang Ngoc (S&D, France) was unhappy about Karas' absence, pointing out that he had dragged his feet over the EP's employment committee's involvement in the report. (EL/transl.fl)