The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) voted, on Thursday 4 March, on the draft report of Enikő Győri (EPP, Hungary) intended to express, for the first time in two years, the position of the Parliament on European economic governance.
“If everyone respects compromises, the report will fly in the plenary too. So, after two long years, we shall have an European Parliament stance again on the pressing issues of economic policy coordination” said Ms Győri, via Twitter. “By more public and private investments, structural reforms and responsible fiscal policies we pave Europe’s way for job creation, recovery and increased resilience”, she added.
The report was adopted thanks to the S&D and Greens/EFA groups abstaining (21 votes in favour, 8 against, 29 abstentions). The MEPs of the EPP group plus four others from the Renew Europe group voted in favour. Abstaining were the S&D and Greens/EFA groups as well as four elected members each from the Renew Europe, ECR and Identity and Democracy groups.
The adoption of the draft report in plenary session is therefore not a foregone conclusion.
The text voted on Thursday is “a base that we need to improve ahead of the plenary vote next week”, the Spaniard Jonás Fernández, coordinator of the S&D group in the ECON committee, told EUROPE in writing. “If the text is improved, that would allow our Group to support it in the plenary vote”, he added, saying he was “confident” that this would be the case.
In this draft report, MEPs say that, in order to overcome the economic crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, an expansionary fiscal policy is required “for as long as necessary”. According to them, the general escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact, activated in March 2020, should remain activated as long as the underlying criteria that justified its activation are met.
The Commission proposes that the freeze on fiscal rules be extended until the end of 2022 (see other news and EUROPE 12670/1).
MEPs also set out some ideas on revising the Pact to provide the EU with “simplified, clear and practical”, rules. They advocate for a more pragmatic approach so that the regulatory framework in the future will be “ stricter in good economic times and more flexible in bad economic times”.
Recognising that fiscal policy alone will not overcome the current crisis, MEPs stressed the importance of implementing “deep, growth-enhancing (...) socially just, tailor-made” reforms to boost the EU’s ecological and digital transitions.
As for the increase in the level of public debt, MEPs claim that it could be made sustainable “through a sufficient level of economic growth”, although, they note, many Member States have had to face the pandemic from a position of fiscal weakness.
See the compromise amendments voted: https://bit.ly/30auc0L (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)