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02 September 2011

Spiegel: Schäuble pushes for new EU Treaty


In response to the ongoing debt crisis, German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, wants to expand the financial policy-making powers of the European Union, with the far-reaching reforms that would likely require a new EU treaty.

Schäuble clarified his plan during a closed-door meeting of leaders of his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) on Thursday evening. Shifting greater powers over economic and financial policy to Brussels is necessary, he said according to the paper, "even though we know how difficult a treaty change will be". Schäuble also acknowledged that such reforms would create a significant divide between the 17 European Union countries that use the euro and the remaining 10 that do not.

Schäuble's ideas are also likely to encounter major reservations within Germany's federal parliament, the Bundestag, where some politicians already feel they've been left out of the government's decisions over the euro bailout funds. But the finance minister has already warned politicians that the eurozone bailout packages established by the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) backstop fund must have the ability to react quickly to financial market developments. He has appealed to the parliamentary groups of Germany's major political parties to use their powers of co-decision responsibly.

Leaders of the CDU/CSU's party group in parliament demanded a vote in the Bundestag on any budget-related actions taken by the EFSF. According to their guidelines, if an EU member requires a bailout or other EFSF-related measures that would effect the German budget, the country's leaders would only be allowed to approve them after being given the green light from the Bundestag.

Full article



© Spiegel Online


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