Europe's crisis measures: A view from the European Parliament

12 February 2013

This study by ComRes for Cicero shows that although the main political groups in the EP are generally in favour of banking union, eurobonds and fiscal and economic union, they are divided over the real effect and the political motivations behind these measures.

This report on the views of MEPs towards a European banking union, eurobonds, fiscal union and economic union outlines the sentiment among European lawmakers towards some of the crisis tools designed to address the structural faults in the currency union.

In 2012, Europe’s leaders made significant progress towards tackling the sovereign debt crisis, helped in no small part by the European Central Bank’s commitment to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. This commitment from the ECB coincided with discussions about closer integration in the eurozone, including binding mechanisms to enforce national spending plans, proposals for joint debt issuance and a eurozone Finance Ministry. Despite the fact that it had shown itself to be overwhelmingly supportive of deeper integration, the European Parliament has been largely sidelined during these discussions.

While intensive discussions were taking place at European Council level around President Herman Van Rompuy’s “Four Presidents’ Report”, ComRes surveyed 100 MEPs, on behalf of Cicero Group, to examine their perceptions of the following policy tools and their likely impact:

• the degree of support for a banking union, eurobonds, fiscal union and economic union;
• the effectiveness of a European banking union for strengthening the banking sector and consumer protection;
• the effectiveness of eurobonds;
• other policy options, such as providing the ESM with a banking licence, deeper integration of the single market, increased labour mobility or centralised oversight of national tax policies.

In the Council, support for these measures was divided, as they were strongly supported by a group of countries including France, Italy, and Spain but resisted equally strongly by the EU’s economic powerhouse Germany. As a result, Van Rompuy’s final report at the December 2012 Summit was significantly watered down and ambitious plans for Treaty change were postponed until after the next European Parliamentary elections in June 2014 and the installation of a new European Commission.

This research shows that while the main political groupings are generally supportive of the banking union, eurobonds and fiscal and economic union, they are more divided on the actual effect and political motives behind these measures. Furthermore, the research shows that MEPs’ views are heavily impacted by nationality and divisions along geographical boundaries are far more significant than those between the main political groupings.

Full study

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