20 December 2011

ECON Committee: Eurozone crisis will not be solved by rolling back the EU

Parliament's representatives pledged to concentrate on ensuring that the mechanisms developed would become part of the normal EU system as quickly as possible, so as to ensure democratic accountability, credibility, and prevent the unravelling of the EU.  Parliament's three representatives are Elmar Brok (EPP, DE), Roberto Gualtieri (S&D, IT), and Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, BE).

Opening a meeting of the Constitutional Affairs and Economic and Monetary Affairs committees, Mr Brok said that it was important to do more than the EU treaty could allow, not less. Member States "deleted from the six pack what they now want to put into the international agreement. It is time to strengthen the six pack because we can have stronger rules through normal EU legislation", he said.

Mr Gualtieri argued that the international agreement's goals could not only have been achieved through normal EU systems, but could have been achieved better. "I think all that is in this text could be achieved with EU legislation. Moreover, this text advocates monitoring of economic policies by Member States, whereas the six pack gave this role to the Commission - imposing sanctions will be difficult if it relies on Member State monitoring."

Mr Verhofstadt highlighted the role of EU institutions in ensuring effectiveness, legitimacy and accountability. "We need to place the Commission at the centre of the international agreement to have effective control, because peer pressure will not work. We also need to create democratic accountability by providing Parliament with political control", he said.

Mr Verhofstadt also warned of "intergovernmental creep" and said that clear written commitments were needed to prevent other policies being developed outside the EU system.

Next steps

Parliament's representatives will submit their written proposals to the working group by 29 December. The tentative deadline for completing the working group's drafting work is 20 January 2012. Meanwhile, Parliament will also elaborate its proposals for a comprehensive path out of the crisis, which are expected to be approved in the form of a resolution in January 2012.

Press release

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