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The Eiffel Group comprises: Agnès Bénassy-Quéré - Yves Bertoncini - Jean-Louis Bianco - Laurence Boone - Bertrand Dumont - Sylvie Goulard - André Loesekrug-Pietri - Rostane Mehdi - Etienne Pflimlin - Denis Simonneau - Carole Ulmer - Shahin Vallée
Everyone expected that Economic and Monetary Union would bring prosperity and improve the living conditions and employment possibilities of Europe's citizens, prior to political rapprochement.
Its design flaws, and management errors, have produced the opposite. Europe's citizens have grave doubts. However the Group is convinced that we must not give up. The initial goals of European integration - to ensure wellbeing and peace - are as relevant as ever. To turn our backs on Europe would today be anachronistic, and tomorrow suicidal. Without building up expectations which can never be achieved, which has previously so often led to disappointment, a new step forward needs to be taken. Europe must find solutions to its concrete problems such as rising inequalities and unemployment, while also contributing to the preservation of the planet. It is essential that Europe does more to ensure that the values it defends are respected and which, far more than questions linked to the Single Market and European procedures, are likely to bring Europeans together. It must lead once again.
This is why the Eiffel Group is suggesting a strategic choice: to construct a political Community which is democratic and based around the euro, while remembering that monetary union was conceived as the bedrock of a much greater project, which intended to unite men and not as an end in itself. The Group is pluralist because the urgency of the situation, just as the violence of the attacks against Europe, needs all Europeans to come together, while respecting each other.
The Eiffel Group wants to raise awareness in France but also to launch an appeal which goes much further. It is convinced that France and Germany retain a particular responsibility in Europe, thus it shares most of the diagnoses and proposals made by the German Glienicker group.
The Group's proposal covers the following areas:
Democratic guarantees: The Euro Community must offer democratic guarantees in line with the highest standards in the member countries...
A Community budget: The Euro Community must have an independent budget in order to finance the policies which have been outlined further up in this document...
The link between the Community and the EU: The Group's wish is to enable the Community and the European Union with 28 Member States to cohabit, as harmoniously as possible, as the raison d'être of the EU has of course not disappeared...
Method: The Group is convinced, as the German Glienicker Group is, that an "optimal Europe", developed with great intellectual rigour, has a greater chance of convincing public opinion than a "minimal Europe" which is always frustrating... Ultimately, the creation of a Euro Community will require a new Treaty whose ratification modalities must be decided in advance...
Comment by CER/Grant, 3.3.14