On Tuesday 24 January, there was uncertainty as to whether the next day's vote on the draft own-initiative report of the European Parliament on a fiscal capacity for the Eurozone would take place, as the Christian Democrat and Liberal groups within the economic affairs committee were calling into question a number of compromise amendments negotiated by Pervenche Berès (S&D, France) and Reimer Böge (EPP, Germany) (see EUROPE 11709).
"We still do not know whether the vote will take place tomorrow. The negotiations between the political groups are continuing", a source close to Böge said on Tuesday. "There's going to be a fight", Berès told EUROPE on Tuesday morning. She criticised the "offensive" of the EPP and ALDE groups within the committee on economic and monetary affairs: by returning to their initial positions, she feels that they are jeopardising the creation of automatic stabilisers at European level. However, Berès feels that she and co-rapporteur Böge, who is a member of the budget committee, have achieved a "balance of pro-European forces in favour of a fiscal capacity for the Eurozone". Attesting to this is the fact that the Social Democrats are reportedly prepared to sacrifice the inclusion of a specific reference to the creation of a minimum unemployment benefit as the Christian Democrats do likewise with their idea of a 'rainy day fund'.
Within the ALDE group, much is being made of the fact that Berès has not answered the requests of the Liberals and Christian Democrats. In particular, Berès has been criticised for giving short shrift to any idea of European budgetary rules. This group also feels that the draft report should state that Eurozone countries that have plunged themselves into crisis through flawed policy and turned a deaf ear to the warnings of their peers should not necessarily have the benefit of the Eurozone's fiscal capacity.
Beyond the substantive issues, Berès considers the attitude of the two political groups to be a consequence of recent tension stemming from the election of Antonio Tajani to the Presidency of the Parliament (see EUROPE 11705). She hit out in passing at the recent open letter of the leaders of the EPP group, Germany's Manfred Weber, and the ALDE, Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium, calling for EU reform but making no mention of the future of the Eurozone.
If there is no vote on the draft report this Wednesday, this would make the timetable extremely tight, as this draft report is supposed to be put to a vote of the mid-February plenary session, alongside the Verhofstadt and Brok/Bresso reports on Parliament's vision of the future of the EU, ahead of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Treaty of Rome (see EUROPE 11686). "As far as we are concerned, it will be all three reports or none at all", Berès warned. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)