30 January 2012

President Schulz's intervention at his first European Council: "Fiscal union without parliamentary control is unacceptable"

"2012 is the year in which we must find a way out of the crisis. The European Parliament intends to play a constructive, committed role in that process", said Schulz. He listed the EP's proposals: an FTT, eurobonds, a European rating agency to break the US monopoly, and a European growth initiative

"The European Parliament wants to make a constructive contribution to the decision-making process. If it is to do so, however, it must be involved in the first place.... For that reason..., we are calling for Parliament to be involved in the negotiations on an equal footing with the other institutions.

You have now made a start on the work of laying the foundations for a fiscal union... Whilst I am only too aware of the constraints you faced, I must nevertheless warn you about two potentially disastrous scenarios:

Firstly, you must work together to counter any threat of division within the EU. We cannot allow the EU to break up, or the principle of a multi-speed Europe to become entrenched. Alone we are weak, together we are strong!

Secondly, a fiscal union which is not subject to scrutiny by parliamentarians is unacceptable. Also, the coherence of Union Law must be preserved, we can not afford to have two different sets of standards...

Nevertheless, some of the European Parliament's proposals have not yet been incorporated into the draft text. I would urge you finally to take note of these calls:

Firstly, all the provisions of the fiscal pact must be incorporated into the Treaties within five years.

Secondly, the European Parliament must participate at all eurozone and EU summits. The European Stability Mechanism was negotiated without our involvement – that is unacceptable.

Thirdly, all 26 contracting parties must have the same right to participate in all Eurosummit meetings, members as well as none-members of the eurozone.

Full speech

© European Parliament