Strasbourg, 04/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - In the debate that followed the annual plenary statement of ECB President Wim Duisenberg, on Tuesday, several MEPs expressed doubt about the state of preparedness of citizens for changeover to the euro, and some confirmed their conviction that the introduction of the euro would coincide with a price rise (such was the case of Mr Gollnisch, National Front, and Messrs Blokland and Butel, from the Europe of Democracies and Diversities Group), but a majority confirmed its trust in the ECB and in Mr Duisenberg the German Social-Democrat Ms Randzio-Plath, rapporteur, by reminding the 'young' institution of what Max Weber listed as the three elements of authority, namely tradition, charisma and reason, adding that she herself would add 'respect'. Despite the ECB's largely positive balance sheet, she called for it to make more efforts to be transparent, saying that what mattered was the quality of dialogue with the European Parliament, which should take a greater part in the appointment of members of the ECB's Governing Council. The other rapporteur, Mr Maaten, put forward suggestions for helping prepare economic stakeholders for the changeover to the Euro and Mr Duisenberg replied to some of these suggestions (see below). One of the MEPs concerns is the cost of cross-border payments after 1 January 2002, which should not cost more than payments in the same country, argued Ms Peijs of the EPP. For the Socialist group, Ms Berès said that a successful changeover to the Euro presupposed that "everything" be discussed, including the ECB's monetary policy since the "European public area" had the right and the duty to be informed of this. She argued for as many citizens as possible to abandon double accounting including in their heads in order to make a success of the changeover. For the Conservatives, Mr Hoon welcomed the adoption of the Council transparency "package" of five measures, three of which had been accepted by the ECB. Slamming the UK Conservatives' "deranged hostility" to the Euro, the Scottish Green MEP Mr Hudghton regretted that Scotland would not be able to joint the Euro-zone on 1 January 2002. For the European United Left/Nordic Green Lefts, Ms Kaufman concentrated on Euroscepticism in her own country, Germany, where 49% of the population opposed the Euro, and 30% expected to lose money. The situation appears rather different in Ireland, where Mr Gallagher (UEN) said that 95% of the population were aware of the Euro and 79% knew when it was being introduced. This debate is taking palce against a difficult economci background, noted Mr von Wogau (EEP/ED), for Germany too. Mr von Wogau could not accept Ms Randzio-Plath's comments. Calling for front-loading of Euro notes and coins, Ms Thyssen (EPP-ED) wondered whether the Commission could take the initiative and change the current regulation…
Mr Duisenberg replied that no, this was not possible. He explained that changing automatic teller machines (ATMs) a few days in advance of the Euro changeover date would endanger the payment system at the busiest time of the year. In five countries (Gemany, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands), ATMs would be converted to the Euro on 1 January, explained Mr Duisenberg, while the others would make the change over a period of a few days. He signalled that he was prepared to accept some of Mr Maat's suggestions, (temporary authorisation for currency conversion by supermarkets and asking banks to open on 1 January) but was neutral about others (delaying the January sales by a few weeks).
For the Commission, Mr Solbes raised an issue close to many MEPs' hearts, the potential rise in prices when the Euro is introduced. To combat this, double price labelling was being planned, but this would only apply in the first six months of 2002 (some MEPs have been calling for a year). Mr Solbes also recognised that meansures would have to be taken to cut the cost of cross-border transactions after the Euro changeover…
Mr Duisenburg told MEPs that the latest cut in the ECB interest rate (to 4.5%) "was appropriate to ensure price stability in the Euro area over the medium term" and that there had "not been any new information that would justify changing this assessment" (since the last meeting of the ECB's Governing Council).
We will return to the vote on the Randzio-Plath and Maaten reports in a later edition (see summaries in EUROPE of 23 June, p.15, and 25/26 June, p.16).