Brussels, 08/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - When speaking to a few journalists, German Social-Democrat Christa Randzio-Plath, Chair of the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Committee, stressed that one of the main tasks for 2001 would be preparing for the euro, and said that she had asked the President of the Parliament, Nicole Fontaine, to ensure adequate participation by the European Parliament in the information campaigns that are to be organised in that context. National parliaments should be involved in these initiatives, affirmed Randzio-Plath, adding: let's make good use of this year, let's not waste it in "advertising campaigns that say nothing". Furthermore, smiling, she said that the leather industry should also be interested in this process, as the standard size of wallets would not correspond to the new banknotes: there will need to be larger wallets (at least in Germany: Ed.), she decided.
In addition, Randzio-Plath announced that the Economic and Monetary Committee, which will meet the President of the European Central Bank four times, would have a special meeting with Wim Duisenberg on 2 May devoted to a discussion on the ECB's annual report. For the first time, we shall know the contents of the report before it is published, she stressed.
The Chair of the Economic and Monetary Committee also spoke of her will to pursue intense dialogue with the Swedish Presidency of the Council. With the Treaty of Nice, Parliament has unfortunately secured no progress regarding its role in Economic and Monetary Union ("we just managed to prevent a degradation of the cooperation procedure to a consultation procedure"), Ms. Randzio-Plath acknowledged, while stating that Parliament would be presenting its amendments on these matters as "in a genuine co-decision procedure". Furthermore, she announced that the European Parliament would vote in time on next March's Stockholm Summit (follow-up to the Lisbon Summit) so as, in particular, to ensure that growth and economic reform go hand in hand with a policy for full employment and social inclusion.
Ms. Randzio-Plath also recalled that the European Parliament had asked the European Commission for a register of State aid, so as to secure greater transparency in the matter, and that the Commission had promised it for 30 June at the latest. "We want a register that is constantly updated," she stressed, considering that it would be a very good thing for Member States too.
As for the integrated financial market to which Economic and Monetary Union should lead, Randzio-Plath said that between now and 2005, Parliament would have to deal with up to 46 draft legislative texts and wondered: "Why does the Council insist on directives instead of making use of regulations?". This would avoid delays and the problems of legal uncertainty, she thought, adding: "In some cases, we could even save years" of legislative work. In this context, Ms. Randzio-Plath raised the work of the Committee of the Wise on the regulation of the European securities market, chaired by Alexander Lamfalussy, stating that the latter, who had already met the Economic and Monetary Committee last year, had said he was prepared to have talks with her again, before publication of the final report, expected mid-February.
The procedure provided for by the Interim Report of the Committee of the Wise relating to committee procedure would be "in breach of the Treaty", Randzio-Plath claimed, noting that this was also the opinion of the European Parliament's legal services. Ms. Randzio-Plath acknowledged that there needed to be a certain amount of technical work at expert level, but stressed that Parliament wanted its word on the brief of the Committee of experts being proposed, and on "what is technical and what is political". There will have to be "a division of work between political and technical levels", and it has to be "clear what a technical brief resembles and what it contains", she said.