Brussels, 05/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - In its economic relaunch plan, unveiled at the end of last month, the European Commission does not mention the idea that has been circulating in some quarters of the sharing of lending by member states in the eurozone, even though this is allowed under the EC Treaty, regretted French MEP Pervenche Berès (PES) during a debate on the oral question to the Council and Commission on the future global financial market system and the EU's economic relaunch plan. She expressed astonishment that the conclusions document of the most recent ECOFIN Council did not give the Commission any detailed mandate in this connection (see EUROPE 9795). EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquín Almunia explained that major countries in the eurozone had ruled out the idea of issuing EU or combined national government securities, and argued for a third option, which has won unanimous support and that the Commission was planning to make use of, namely the option for the EIB to provide more funding for investment and in a more detailed fashion in order to support demand. He added that the national economic relaunch plan had to be coordinated at EU level in order to ensure added EU value. One plus one can equal three if initiatives are coordinated, he said, warning that one plus one can equal less than zero in the absence of coordination.
On behalf of the Council, the French secretary of state for small and medium-sized enterprises, Hervé Novelli, hailed the way the EU had played a key role in mobilising the international community to provide an immediate response to the financial crisis and start reforming the global financial set-up. EU unity had made it possible for highly significant progress to be achieved, he said, giving the example of the United States, other American countries and emerging economies agreeing on the need for regulation or surveillance to cover all financial players, all markets and all legal systems. He said that the IMF and the Financial Stability Forum needed the resources to stave off crises by identifying the build up of risk and bubbles in the financial system, and to come forward with economic policies to match. He said that progress had been achieved in negotiations on four EU directives (banks' funding requirements, deposit guarantees, Solvability II and UCITS) and he hoped further progress would be achieved by the Larosière group in its work on the supervision of European financial institutions. (M.B./trans.fl)