Brussels, 07/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - Increase the frequency of Eurogroup meetings, create a working group to prepare these meetings and increase the number of press releases - these are the measures suggested in a Communication on the strengthening of economic policy coordination in the euro area, adopted by the European Commission on Wednesday. The main lines of the Communication were presented to the press by Pedro Solbes, Commissioner responsible for economic and financial affairs. Mr Solbes urged for increased euro-area visibility, and better communication between the ECB, the Commission and the Eurogroup. He also called on each Member State to adhere to the principle of informing other members and the Commission before the adoption of economic policy measures which are likely to have an impact on the euro-area economy. Generally speaking, the Communication sets out a series of proposals for improving the coordination process, reinforcing its content, strengthening the effectiveness of coordination instruments and increasing transparency. Pedro Solbes declared that "if implemented, the Commission's proposals would constitute an important step forward in arriving at better economic management of the euro-area, whilst fully respecting the independence and responsibilities of the policy actors concerned". The Commissioner specified these proposals would in no way change the current legal framework, and confirmed on several occasions the importance of "peer pressure", whereby the decisions adopted are by consensus, and recommendations must be respected by the countries to which they are addressed. In response to a question on the effectiveness of the proposal of recommendation that sanctions the stability programme in Ireland, Mr Solbes stated that it was still too soon to judge whether such a pressure system would work in this case.
To reinforce the content of coordination, the Commission proposes: i) to improve the common assessment of the economic situation of the euro area by, for example, giving better statistical data through the immediate implementation of the action plan on EMU statistics, but also by conducting an assessment twice yearly (before and after presentation of the stability programmes) of the euro-area policy mix for macro-economic policies; ii) to define a set of rules governing the conduct of economic policy-making, approved by the Eurogroup which "should make it possible to face up to current problems such as taxation policy issues at the time of the oil crisis", said Pedro Solbes.
To achieve more effective coordination, the Commission also proposes that: i) Member States in the euro area should adhere to the principle of ex ante information which, stressed Pedro Solbes, would allow account to be taken of any suggestions before decisions are taken; ii) a Eurogroup working group should be set in place within the Economic and Financial Committee and the number of Eurogroup meetings should be increased. This would allow more targeted preparation of such meetings, and would avoid all discrepancy, in so far as the EMU member countries have different problems from those that are not members, said Pedro Solbes; iii) more regular meetings between the ECB president, that of the Eurogroup and the Commission representative at the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. As far as external representation of the euro area is concerned, the Commission restated the proposal whereby a "triumvirate" composed of these three persons would present the common positions on the matters that are of special importance for EMU.
To improve transparency and give the euro area greater visibility, Pedro Solbes finally suggests "striking a balance between confidentiality and transparency, public and market information". The Commission proposes to publish very regular reports on the economy of the euro area. It thus suggests, where necessary, setting out the content of debates on such issues during Eurogroup press conferences, and also calls for more frequent publication of the latter's press releases.