Brussels, 20/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - The adoption of two resolutions by Werner Langen (EPP-ED, Germany) on Wednesday, by a very large majority, effectively means that MEPs have agreed to the adoption of the Euro by Cyprus and Malta on 1 January 2008. Another resolution, however, said that the time they had been given to reach an opinion had been too short and they asked the Council and Commission to plan an interinstitutional agreement, which would give them at least two months to decide on proposals for expanding the Eurozone. They hope that in the future member states that want to join the Eurozone indicate their intention to introduce a request for an early assessment in the previous autumn of the year of proceedings, and that they inform the economic and monetary affairs committee of this decision. MEPs say that the Commission should draft an interim convergence report at the beginning of the year. They also insist that excessive debt procedure against a Eurozone candidate country should be closed, once respect for Maastricht criteria has been evaluated.
Adopted in mid May and sent to the EP on 25 May (EUROPE 9428), the European Commission's convergence report anticipated the end of excessive debt procedures against Malta, which was finally ratified by EU27 finance ministers on 5 June (EUROPE 9439). Although this is only an advisory report, the opinion of the Parliament is, nevertheless, a necessary preliminary to obtaining a decision by the Council of the EU. Joaquin Almunia said during the debates that on Thursday, the European Council will give its green light to the accession of Cyprus and Malta, before the formal decision is finally taken at the Ecofin Council on 10 July. The commissioner for economic and monetary affairs explained that it was difficult, due to the economic and tax impact of this decision, to envisage another date. He recognised that the institutions had to work to very short deadlines (the Commission had two weeks to draft the convergence report after receiving all the necessary data, which Almunia explained were “reliable and rigorous”). The Commission called on the EP to reach a rapid decision and also reiterated its readiness to discuss with the other institutions how working on the basis of limited existing objectives could be improved. Almunia said that they had mixed up certain data: data provided by Malta and Cyprus that had not always been considered satisfactory by the Commission on quarterly financial accounts and neither the excessive debt procedure. Accession of the two countries to the Eurozone is a success for European integration, concluded Almunia.
The European Parliament does not like to be jostled and the rapporteur confirmed this: the EP does not agree to being subject to pressure and appealed for an interinstitutional agreement on the procedure to be concluded before the end of 2007 (the letter from President Barroso to President Pöttering is encouraging in this connection). Overall, the situation of the two countries justifies the decision, but Mr Langen criticises the Commission for having elaborated its proposal before excessive debt procedures were abrogated. The commissioner replied that they had done it to gain time and enable the Parliament to work in the best conditions. Almunia responded to a criticism made by Langen about the reliability of the data and affirmed that Eurostat's work had considerably improved over the last three years.
Opportunity and challenge: this is how delegates from the countries concerned see their accession to the Eurozone. Malta has made some significant efforts, particularly with regard to rates of inflation and the budget deficit, affirmed David Casa (EPP/ED) but his socialist compatriot Joseph Muscat is a little more pessimistic. Consumers will have to make sacrifices he said and regretted that the commitment to moderate prices had only been made by half of all companies. The most profitable sector in Malta, tourism, is in relative decline. Panayotis Demetriou (EPP/ED) said that the decision is good for Cyprus but a shame that it only involved half the island. He called on the Union to attempt to find a solution to the problem. Cypriot Liberal Marios Matsakis said, on the contrary, that Cyprus joining the Eurozone would bring Turkey closer to Europe and Europe closer to the United Kingdom, given that the two parts of the island that currently used the Cypriot pound will now use the Euro.
Some parliamentarians raised questions of principle. Polish socialist Dariusz Rosati said that some convergence criteria defined in the Maastricht Treaty, particularly that on inflation, are no longer suited to the current situation. French socialist, Pervenche Bérès, president of the economic and monetary committee, confirmed that they were living in a Europe that was very different to that of 1992 but said that if they wanted to open discussions on inflation they would also have to examine other criteria. She said that they too often got the impression in these debates that technical arguments got the upper hand while what was more important for people was the question of Eurozone governance. She called on the Council to support the Commission's spirit of conciliation if it wanted Parliament's cooperation. Bérès only managed to get Mr Gloser to promise the following: “we'll see what is feasible”. (lg/ab)