Brussels, 26/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - French Liberal MEP Sylvie Goulard regrets that the European Parliament is not taking sufficient advantage of initiatives to boost transparency in negotiations over the bailout programmes of struggling eurozone nations like Greece.
Speaking to a handful of reporters on Tuesday 26 May, she said she could not comment on the substance of the Greek talks but she was very disappointed about the process. One section of the EP is opposed to public debate, she stated. She said there is the lack of a public area where all the stakeholders can debate in front of MEPs in order to breathe a little democracy into the governance process of the bailout plans for struggling eurozone nations.
Goulard said she did not know whether or when the leaders of Greece, the ECB and the European Commission would accept the invitation from the Parliament's Conference of Presidents to hold a private debate about the reforms to be required of Greece in return for the continuation of financial aid (see EUROPE 11319 and 11314). The Greens/EFA, ALDE, EFDD and ECR would have liked a public debate, she said, but the EPP, S&D and GUE/NGL opposed the idea.
Philippe Lamberts (Belgium), joint leader of the Greens/EFA told this newsletter that his group wanted a debate of this type as long as it does not turn into a trial of or attack on Tsipras and as long as it takes place once the current round of negotiations have finished . Fabio De Masi (GUE/NGL, Germany) said there was no reason for Tsipras to fear debate.
Since his election in January, the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has already had a meeting with the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, who travelled to Athens soon after the far left Syriza party came to power at the start of the year (see EUROPE 11274). Goulard said that Tsipras, who was elected on the back of rejection of the infamous “troika” of institutional lenders to Greece, could have made greater use of the European Parliament. She regretted that the current finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, had rejected an invitation to a political dialogue with the EP's economic and monetary affairs committee. (Mathieu Bion)