Brussels, 27/08/2015 (Agence Europe) - Benoît Coeuré, a member of the board of the ECB, discussed the stakes of reinforcing the eurozone and spoke of a number of short-term measures to consolidate Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), in Paris on Thursday 27 August.
“Integration through the crises has shown its effectiveness, but has not got the citizens on board. We therefore need to associate the euro with a 'positive recipe', to adopt the instruments we need to make sure that they are subject to democratic controls”, said Coeuré, in a speech during the French Ambassadors' Week. He argued that the French should look at what can be done jointly at economic level to increase efficiency and economies of scale. At budgetary level, the ECB board member is not opposed to a greater pooling of risks, but this “presupposes sufficient economic governance between the participants states”, he stressed, as “solidarity cannot be converted into a system of permanent transfers, which is not part of the 'contract' which set up monetary union”. And this pooling will also require “responsible” budgetary policies, because “we cannot push the Europe of solidarity and act like the economic policy of a eurozone country is a matter for its parliament alone”.
In order to bring about this common project, “common institutions” are necessary, according to Coeuré. Borrowing from the proposal of the former ECB President, Jean-Claude Trichet, he called for the “creation of the eurozone Ministry of Finance under the control of the European Parliament”. This Ministry would be responsible for preventing economic and budgetary imbalances, managing crises in the eurozone, but also for managing the budgetary capacity of the Nineteen and representing the eurozone at international economic and financial institutions.
The senior official, who is aware that these developments will take time and will possibly call for treaty change, to which he did not himself refer, spoke of measures to be taken in the short term to consolidate Economic and Monetary Union. He referred to the completion of banking union, with a “rapid agreement on a common support mechanism for the Resolution Fund and the phasing-in of the European deposit insurance scheme”. As regards economic matters, Coeuré called for a “common growth strategy”, based on identifying weaknesses and structural reforms to set in place. In this area, “the keywords need to be productivity and employment rates, which are positive-sum games, rather than competitiveness, which is a zero-sum game”, he said. (Mathieu Bion)