The negotiations on the creation of a fiscal capacity for the Eurozone between, on the one hand, the Social Democrats and, on the other, the Liberals and Christian Democrats of the 'economic and monetary affairs' committee (ECON) of the European Parliament continue to be extremely tense over the reference to European budgetary rules as a precondition for Eurozone countries to access any financial support (see EUROPE 11711, 11710).
The reference to the Stability Pact “assumes that the patient has been cured; yet the Pact is not respected, not implemented, gets reinterpreted”, Pervenche Berès (S&D, France), who is steering the negotiations within the ECON committee on this joint draft report with the committee on budgets, said on Wednesday 8 February.
By way of compromise, the Germans of the EPP group at the ECON committee have agreed for the Pact not to be referred to by name, with a vague reference instead to the framework of economic governance. “I am very pleased with this, this is not the same thing as reiterating the rules of the Pact”, the French Socialist said.
In exchange, the EPP group is refusing to allow any reference to be made to the European Commission's competence to define an aggregated budgetary orientation at Eurozone level. However, the Commission has already claimed this prerogative, but where it has called for a budgetary orientation geared slightly towards expenditure, the member states have opted for a balance between budgetary rigour and stimulating investment (see EUROPE 11682).
Describing as “undeniable” the fact that relations between the political groups of the now defunct 'Grand Coalition' have grown worse since the election of Antonia Tajani as Parliament's President, a parliamentary source said that Berès's position could also be explained by the nomination in France of Benoît Hamon. The Socialist party's candidate for the presidential elections has made no secret of his desire to smash the “dogma” of the European budgetary rules, in particular the limiting of government deficits to 3% of GDP.
According to Berès, the differences of opinion over the Stability Pact predate Hamon's nomination. Furthermore, “Macron is not an Ayatollah of the Pact, quite the reverse!”, she said, in a comment aimed at the Liberals, including Sylvie Goulard of France, who supports Macron's candidacy for the French presidential elections.
In response to the argument of the European Right that the main thing is to rally a strong majority of MEPs behind the concept of a fiscal capacity for the Eurozone, as long as access to this capacity is conditional, the MEP stressed that she had already made a substantial concession by agreeing for the explicit reference to the creation of an “unemployment benefit mechanism” to be deleted.
The vote on the draft 'Berès/Böge' report is scheduled to take place in Strasbourg on Monday 13 February. This will be the last window of opportunity to allow the report to be put to a vote at plenary session of the following week, alongside the 'Verhofstadt' and Brok/Bresso' reports outlining the Parliament's vision on the future of the EU ahead of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Treaty of Rome, to be held in the Italian capital at the end of March (see EUROPE 11686).
“The majority will be tight, that's for sure”, Berès predicts. The Polish, Czech, Slovenian, Romanian and Dutch delegations are expected to vote against the draft report. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)