Brussels, 11/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - On 12 February, the European Council will discuss ways of improving coordination of economic policies in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
This subject should have been the key theme of the informal summit but the current situation has upset the agenda (see other articles). The analytical note the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, was in charge of preparing, will not effectively be presented to the EU28 but will instead be transmitted on Friday, in an effort to avoid interfering with the Greek dossier. One ambassador, for whom this is simply a matter of “launching the reflection process”, said that the context in Greece, “makes the question of the written note a delicate one”.
The objective of the European Council discussions (which will be attended by the Presidents of the ECB and Eurogroup) will be to provide guidelines on the work of the “4 presidents” (European Commission, European Council, ECB and Eurogroup) in view of drafting a more substantial report for the June summit.
The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, believes that the debate has to focus on action to be taken in the short term and under the treaty as it stands, in an effort to promote ownership by the member states of the structural reforms advocated and their follow-up at a European level. A senior European official confirmed, “a lot of things depend on implementation at national level”. He also noted the “lack of enthusiasm” among member states regarding revision of the treaty. The Commission believes it possible under the current treaty to toughen up the budget process in the European Semester by stimulating a more political dialogue in the respective member states regarding the structural reforms to be carried out, overseen by the Commissioners responsible and with the entire political spectrum and social partners.
German dissatisfaction. The prospect of having to wait till June to get this dossier flying, is not exactly to the liking of northern European countries, including Germany, which were hoping for swifter responses, despite the fact that the Commission has presented a plan that is supposed to attract €315 billion in private investment over a three-year period and has interpreted the flexibility of the Stability and Growth Pact and the fact that the ECB will be beginning a programme for purchasing private and public debt in March (European level quantative easing) in an effort to create some sort of inflationary pressures.
On the other hand, the German idea of bringing member states on board through contracts in a process of reform, in exchange for financial incentives, is well and truly dead and buried. (Mathieu Bion and EL/JK)