Brussels, 03/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The conference of the presidents of the groups of the European Parliament has not yet taken any decision on its possible involvement in monitoring the implementation of the economic adjustment programmes of countries under financial assistance.
On Thursday 3 September, this body gave a mandate to the President of the EP, to meet his opposite number at the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, to discuss how to set in place a procedure to give the EP greater involvement on the grounds of a solid legal basis, probably via an inter-institutional agreement.
The question may be discussed by Juncker and the conference of the presidents in Strasbourg next week. On Wednesday 1 September, the Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, pledged an initiative to get the EP more involved (see EUROPE 11380).
“We already have a legal basis”, the co-president of the Greens/EFA group, Belgium's Philippe Lamberts, told EUROPE, referring to a brief discussion of the conference of the presidents. The approach would be based on the budgetary surveillance rules of the Stability and Growth Pact ('two-pack'). “Martin Schulz will come back to us to discuss how this can be organised”, Lamberts continued, explaining that the EP's role was principally a monitoring one.
The request made by ALDE, in particular the idea of adopting a resolution following a plenary debate on progress in the implementation of the programme before the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) pays out a tranche of aid to Greece, was not discussed in detail, as the arrangements for the EP's involvement will not be decided upon until later.
In a letter to Schulz dated 19 August, the outgoing Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, called for the EP's full and direct involvement in the monitoring process of the implementation of the third Greek bailout plan. This request was based on the regulation (472/2013) reinforcing economic and budgetary monitoring. The text of this regulation states that reinforced monitoring, also in the framework of assistance under the ESM (or other financial arm of the eurozone or of the Twenty-Eight), should include “regular reports to the competent committee of the European Parliament” (see EUROPE 11373).
The economic and monetary affairs committee of the EP could therefore be kept regularly updated as to developments, but other committees, such as the social affairs committee, should also be associated with this exercise. (Elodie Lamer)