Brussels, 22/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - The president of the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the European Parliament, Roberto Gualtieri, finds that the European Commission's proposals to reinforce Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) lack ambition.
On Wednesday 21 October, the Commission suggested setting in place a European network of national competitiveness authorities and a European budgetary committee, beefing up the macro-economic imbalance procedure and working towards a unified representation of the eurozone at the IMF (see EUROPE 11415).
These proposals are a step in the right direction, but “it is highly questionable that it makes the best possible use of the existing treaties”, said the Italian Social Democrat. “The Parliament has already shown that far more ambitious measures are possible without any Treaty change”, he added, referring to the Berès report on reinforcing the EMU. Adopted with the votes of the EPP and S&D groups alone, this report lays emphasis on investment (see EUROPE 11343).
Gualtieri also criticises the fact that the Commission says nothing about improving the democratic legitimacy of EMU through the involvement of the European Parliament. Although in favour of streamlining the representation of the eurozone within the IMF, he does not feel that it should be the responsibility of the president of the Eurogroup to represent the eurozone countries within this international body, as the current president, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, “is responsible to the Dutch Parliament but not to the European Parliament”. He laments the fact that the Commission ignores the Community method in its suggestion that the Council remain completely responsible for the creation of the National competitiveness authorities. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)