Brussels, 27/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - The more ambitious measures to reform the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) - such as the creation of its own budgetary capacity - will be discussed at the informal meeting of the European finance ministers, to be held in Luxembourg on 11 and 12 September.
With the latest episode in the Greek crisis having thrown the shortcomings of eurozone governance into sharp relief, the reflection on the development of the EMU has already been launched at European level. France, supported by Italy, is arguing in favour of the creation of a budgetary union, with the eurozone's own budget, which would draw its democratic legitimacy from a specific eurozone parliament (see EUROPE 11363). It has pledged concrete proposals by the end of the summer. The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, is also reported to be open to the idea of transferring substantial financial resources at European level to a eurozone budget, possibly by means of a 'Eurotax', according to reports in the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel.
“The idea of strengthening the budgetary capacity of the eurozone has come up on several occasions as one of the possible ways of strengthening the zone, although it has been described as too modest by those who also regret the fact that any ambition to pool the debt has been abandoned”, the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU said on Friday 24 July, following the debate of the informal General Affairs Council on the measures contained in the report of the 'five presidents' on the development of the EMU (see EUROPE 11340) (Mathieu Bion)