Brussels, 08/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, firmly believes that the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) needs to move forward through “realistic” legislative initiatives which do not require treaty change.
On strengthening the EMU, “instead of revolutionary thinking and sudden systemic changes (for instance, big treaty changes), we should use every possibility to improve and correct the current system”, Tusk said in Brussels on Monday 7 September, at a dinner to mark the 10th anniversary of the think tank Bruegel.
On the basis of the proposals by the report of the 'five Presidents', to which he made a personal contribution (see EUROPE 11340), the President of the European Council referred to three measures which would help to improve the management of the single currency. He called for the creation of a “proper European deposit insurance scheme” to complete banking union in the eurozone. “However difficult the reform may seem, it does not require a treaty change. I am well aware that some politicians, not least in Germany, would disagree but their claims are either an overstatement or an excuse not to change”, he said.
Tusk is also a proponent of the work to set the Capital Markets Union in place, and he called for the creation, in the eurozone, of a “system of independent committees” responsible for promoting competitiveness. “Divergences in competitiveness within the eurozone contributed greatly to the recent crisis and still remain a serious issue”, he said. (Mathieu Bion)