On Tuesday 27 November, MEPs from the European Parliament's 'budgets' and 'economic and monetary affairs' committees expressed disagreement on the establishment of a European Investment Stabilisation Function, based on a draft report by Pervenche Berès (S&D, France) and Reimer Böge (EPP, Germany) and related amendments.
This text echoes the European Commission's proposal of last June to support Member States hit by an asymmetric economic shock (see EUROPE 12031).
Among the changes envisaged in relation to the Commission's proposal, the rapporteurs consider in particular that the instrument should have a budget of at least 55 billion euros, when the Commission wanted to limit it to 30 billion euros.
The debate by MEPs highlighted significant differences in analysis on an ideological basis. Manuel dos Santos (S&D, Portugal) and Siegfried Mureșan (EPP, Romania) acknowledged the "complexity" and "extreme difficulty" of this issue.
Ms Berès was the first to take the floor, stressing the need for a stabilisation function in the near future to "face the next [economic] upheaval" in the euro zone. She also stressed the possibility that she would like to give to this future instrument to support national unemployment insurance systems.
Bernd Kölmel (ECR, Germany) spoke against the approach of the Commission and the rapporteurs. "I am sure we are on the wrong track", he said, referring then to his scepticism about too much solidarity between states in the euro zone.
Ramon Tremosa i Balcells (ALDE, Spain) expressed his support for the proposal, but recalled that his group wanted to focus on structural reforms and compliance with EU budgetary rules by Member States, when Maria João Rodrigues (S&D, Portugal) considered the work of the co-rapporteurs to be "very constructive".
Work must continue between negotiators at Parliament in order to eventually take a position in January, with disagreements between political families still marked. This is at a time when the EU Finance Ministers are due to present, on Monday 3 December, the results of their work on this subject, which should be quite modest, two weeks after the publication of a Franco-German proposal with a very different tone (see EUROPE 12140). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)