06/02/2019 (Agence Europe) – Although MEPs from the European Parliament's ‘Economic and Monetary Affairs’ and ‘Budgets’ Committees were due to vote on Thursday 7 February on the draft interim report by Pedro Silva Pereira (S&D, Portugal) and Vladimír Maňka (S&D, Slovenia) on the creation of a European Monetary Fund (EMF), the vote was postponed to the end of the month. According to our information, the EPP Group reportedly requested the postponement. This text echoes the European Commission's proposal of December 2017 to set up an EMF to replace the current European Stability Mechanism (ESM) (see EUROPE 11920). While a reform of the ESM is indeed under consideration at the ministerial level, the idea of transforming the ESM into an EMF is not currently on the agenda of the Union's Finance Ministers (see EUROPE 12177). (LT)