On Wednesday 2 October, the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs rejected by a large majority (34 votes against, 18 in favour, 4 abstentions), the draft report by Esther de Lange (EPP, Netherlands) on the economic policy of the euro area in 2019, a report that was supposed to guide the European Commission's work on the budget process for the “European Semester” for 2020.
The vote on the compromise amendments from the EPP and ECR groups and the alternative amendments tabled by the S&D group was so close that an electronic vote was required to determine majorities, which sometimes turned on a single vote.
A large number of the 108 amendments from the S&D group were rejected, in particular on the participation of social partners in the process, the need to reform the Stability and Growth Pact in order to exclude ‘green’ investments from the calculation of public deficit, the introduction of a budgetary golden rule to facilitate investment and the modification of benchmarks to include physical indices.
The Social Democrats then managed to gather a majority of the Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL and Liberal members of the Renew Europe Group to reject the report as amended and conclude the work. The text will not be voted on at next week's mini plenary session.
“This neoliberal vision of austerity no longer works”, Frenchwoman Aurore Lalucq, coordinator of the S&D group on this issue, told EUROPE, according to whom “mindsets are changing in Europe”. She added, “We must take advantage of this changeover to adopt a Green New Deal that is up to the challenge”.
On the other hand, Mrs de Lange, on Twitter, said it important to stay on track “even if you know that your own report will be destroyed by parties that want to put an end to Member States' budgetary discipline”. She then accused the Social Democrats of reneging on previously agreed compromises, adding that they have become Parliament’s biggest opposition party. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)