Most of the MEPs defended the idea of including the budgetary pact in European Union law, at a debate hosted by the European Parliament on Wednesday 4 October. The European Commission may make a proposal to this effect in early December.
Valdis Dombrovskis, the Vice-President of the Commission with responsibility for the euro, preceded the contributions of the MEPs by announcing that the European institution was currently looking into the various options to include the budgetary pact in EU law, in line with article 16 of the Treaty on the stability, coordination and governance of the EMU (TSCG), which provides for de facto measures in 2018 to do so. He went on to say that the Commission aimed to put forward a proposal on 6 December, when the legislative package on deepening Economic and Monetary Union is to be presented (see EUROPE 11863).
Although Marco Valli (EFDD, Italy), whose group requested the debate, staunchly opposed the move, as did other MEPs from Eurosceptic parties, arguing that this would create an “institutionalisation of the troika” of creditors of countries under a bailout programme, the main political groups in Parliament supported the future initiative. Dariusz Rosati (EPP, Poland) called for the pact to be included in the primary law of the EU, to make it universally applicable. However, he argued in favour of reducing the complexity of the budgetary framework, to make it more transparent and easier to understand.
Pervenche Berès (S&D, France) stressed that enshrining the budgetary pact in EU law would give the EU institutions a role, whereas the TSCG was concluded by the signatory states under an inter-governmental method. However, she reiterated a request previously made by Parliament to the Commission to carry out an assessment of the implementation of the budgetary pact in the member states. Joachim Starbatty (ECR, Germany) and Petr Ježek (ALDE, Czech Republic) also spoke in support of the Commission making such a proposal, for reasons of efficiency.
Of the 25 member states (all except Croatia, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom) which have signed up to the TSCG, 22 (the 19 Eurozone countries plus Hungary, Poland and Sweden) are bound by the rules of the budgetary pact. It is an integral part of the TSCG treaty and requires a budgetary balance rule to be introduced into the national law of the countries (see EUROPE 11732). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)