Brussels, 14/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Committee adopted by 29 votes to 2 and 5 abstentions the report by Pervenche Berès (Socialist, France) which puts forward concrete proposals to improve coordination of economic policies within the euro zone. While giving a positive welcome to the European Commission's communication of 7 February on this subject (see EUROPE of 7 February, p.6), Ms Berès calls on national parliaments to take part in the political debate on the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPG) of Member States. She also considers that the democratic control of the EP should be reinforced to guarantee the success and the legitimacy of these policies and that the means for collecting harmonised statistical data be increased. The report will be discussed in plenary on 2 October in Strasbourg.
Presenting her report to the press, Ms Berès explained that she hoped to carry out a useful job by driving home a point just where the EP can make things move forward, that is, at the level of this vague instrument, the BEPG, whose binding nature is challenged (as the Irish case shows). Following its rapporteur, the economic and monetary committee therefore invites the national parliaments, the Commission, the Council Presidency and Europe, as well as the European Central Bank (ECB), to meet once a year in the context of an EP sitting at the time when the BEPGs are being prepared for discussion. It felt that national parliaments should give an annual report on preparation of the BEPG in their countries in order to discuss it once a year with the EP. The report also suggests that the national budgetary procedures of Member States should integrate the recommendations of the BEPG as adopted by the Council and possibly specified by the Eurogroup in order to ensure democratic implementation. It suggests that the Presidency of the Eurogroup should prepare for dialogue with the economic and monetary committee after its meetings (Didier Reynders was there once under Swedish Presidency, early in the summer).
According to Ms Berès, if no progress is made in this field, the euro will not become a true medium for contributing to economic power. This obligation of more "proactive" coordination of economic policies is today justified all the more as we are entering into the third phase of transition to single currency and that, so far, the incomplete nature of EMU implementation has been masked by strong growth in the zone, although this may not be the case tomorrow.
The report by Ms Berès also proposes that the exchange of information should be intensified within the Eurogroup on the subject of tax policies, reform plans and their budgetary consequences, and that the allocation of fortuitous or exceptional tax receipts (that is the "tax kitty" which was the subject of controversial debates in France) may be the subject of "prior discussion" between the States involved. The French MEP regrets that the group of Liberals had prevented her from going further. In an amendment that she rejected, she requested that the Member States should complete the BEPGs, from UNDP indicators, with a series of quantifiable and binding objectives, including on the consequences of demographic ageing, the fight against poverty and exclusion.