Get EMU on its own two feet up and walking. During a European demonstration in Rome last week, Jacques Delors indicated some of the new rules that in his opinion should be introduced in order to give consistency and efficacity to the economic aspect of EMU. Mr Delors is particularly qualified for putting forward suggestions in this area. During negotiations over the Treaty of Maastricht, he proposed that "an economic co-ordination pact" was created alongside the "Stability Pact", as well as the introduction of additional parameters (long term unemployment, youth employment) to assess and compare economic developments in Member States. Since then he has not ceased to denounce the faltering progress of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), which is leaning on its shaky monetary leg alone. The facts bare him out but the Convention "Economic governance" work group has been unable to agree on how to obtain balance again. The polemic surrounding the subject has been pretty sharp and the Convention will be discussing it at the plenary on Thursday. Jacques Delors' position comes just at the right time. Here are some of the main points:
a) the Convention should highlight the fact that the spirit of the EMU is as economic as it is monetary;
b) it should endow the Commission with the right of initiative and the facility to give advice to governments on the co-ordination of national economic policies. In an initial phase the Commission would do this discreetly but later its advice and recommendations would be made public for reasons of transparency and democratic clarity;
c) the Convention should modify the current management mechanism in the Euro-zone, based on the "Eurogroup", the informal Ministerial body which can't take decisions and which has to go through the ECOFIN Council to have decisions approved. It appears obvious, although he hasn't said it overtly, that Jacques Delors supports the Commission's suggestion, whereby the ECOFIN Council will meet up in a group representative of Euro-zone countries. It will have decision-making powers with regard to the Euro-zone (therefore avoiding the absurd situation in which Euro-zone countries are in the minority within the enlarged EUROFIN Council with regard to decisions that concern it);
d) the Convention should create a "Mr EMU" who represents the Economic and Monetary Union in the same way that Javier Solana speaks for the CFSP. Mr Delors considers that "Mister EMU" would naturally be the President of the Commission.
A point for additional growth: In order to concretise the principles written into the Convention, Jacques Delors has re-launched the project he has been supporting for 5 years: setting up a "Co-ordination Pact for economic policies" that covers growth and job incentives, investment, research, regional development, training, labour markets". The European Central Bank (ECB) would also be able to, in complete autonomy, avoid criticism and pursue its objectives for overcoming inflation and obtaining monetary stability. The Stability Pact would continue to fully play its role of achieving budgetary balance with the necessary flexibility and intelligence called for by Mr Prodi, who has said that, "I would not use its words but I support it absolutely".
It seems obvious that for Jacques Delors, what really counts does not lie in legalistic explanations or the "fight for power" between the institutions but in the political and economic motivation of the measures that have been suggested. Economic co-ordination is necessary for achieving increased growth and jobs. In his opinion, "with effective co-ordination the EU could have had during the last years of the 1990s a point or a point and a half of additional growth" and the positive effect would have been followed up. Mr Delors believes that "Finance Ministers have always been the most reluctant when it comes to the question of taking a step forward for Europe" (I've already underlined in this section that fact that Heads of Government often appear the most open and willing, which should encourage the Convention to try).
Contrary to a widely held opinion, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is open to the idea of strengthening the Commission's powers in this area. In a recent interview (published by "La Repubblica and "El Paìs"), he stated that, "Currently, the Commission is putting forward proposals to the Council, which has the last word. It is necessary to examine whether it is not opportune to give the Commission autonomous powers of decision-making in these areas". Meanwhile, France and Germany have suggested that inflation and employment are included in the parameters of the Stability Pact (in fact the overall deficit is already in it, whereas inflation and employment should figure in the co-ordination Pact). We are now able to see the direction these reflections are going in. (F.R.)