Activites

• 2010/11/24 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament summary

    The President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, presented to MEPs the results of the last European Council on economic governance measures. As regards the establishment of automatic penalty mechanism against States who do not respect the Stability Pact, the Task Force on economic governance provided a right balance as a basis to avoid excessive deficits and strengthen the EU’s capacity when a country creates risk for the common stability. The penalties shall now be decided by the European Commission, and it will be for the Council to vote with a qualified majority not to adopt the sanctions but to suspend them. This reverse mechanism is a major innovation which should now be translated into concrete legislative proposals. He stated that limited changes would be required for a permanent stability pact. The President of the European Commission underlined the importance of safeguarding the financial stability of Ireland, the euro zone and the EU as a whole. He said that legislative proposals from the Commission will be operational as soon as possible in order to strengthen economic governance in Europe. He considered that if the EU wants to play a stronger role in the world, more coherence, convergence and common purpose is needed.In their responses to Mr Van Rompuy’s remarks, the political group leaders highlighted the following points:the leader of the EPP recalled the need for solidarity between all European partners in these difficult times. He called for the rejection of demagogy and populism, underlining that the solution to the crisis could only be protectionism;the leader of the S&D group warned against the possibility of a three-way split: France and Germany, the Eurozone and the rest with the UK in a "special position". He criticised the request from Germany to revise the Treaties. He confirmed that private sector participation is good and requested it to be in the form of a finacial transaction tax;the leader of the Liberals deplored the fact that it is currently not possible to strengthen economic governance with so many co-existing systems. While supporting the Head of the ECB on the need to strengthen the system and make sure that sanctions are effectively automatic, he stated that he had more confidence in the European Commission to apply measures against countries not complying than in the Council;the co-president of the Greens called for the strengthening of economic governance. She stated that a pro-European spirit of solidarity is lacking, including in Germany where this solidarity used to be prominent; the ECR group called for respect as regards the pressures that Member States are under and considered that all non-urgent EU projects should be deferred to allow the setting up of an EU budget that reflects the current troubled economic times;the GUE/NGL group warned against further punishment of indebted countries;lastly, the leader of the EFD group considered that the EU has learned nothing from the crisis. He cited the Greek and the Irish crises and is of the opinion that Portugal and Spain are next on the list with the Spanish bailout being seven times bigger than for Ireland.

• #3047
• 2010/11/22 Council Meeting
  • 3047
• #3045
• 2010/11/17 Council Meeting
  • 3045 summary

    The Council was informed by the presidency of its intentions concerning the follow-up to be given to the European Council meeting on 28 and 29 October 2010 as regards: (i) economic governance; (ii) levies and taxes in the financial sector.It held an exchange of views.Economic governance:  the European Council in October endorsed the final report from a task force established in March to devise proposals for better budgetary discipline in the member states and an improved crisis resolution framework at EU level. It called on the Council and the European Parliament to reach agreement on the ensuing legislation by the summer of 2011, on the basis of proposals from the Commission, so as to enable a rapid and effective implementation of the group's recommendations.The European Council also considered that work on how the impact of pension reforms should be accounted for in the implementation of the EU's stability and growth pact should be speeded up, and asked the Council to report back on the issue in time for its meeting on 16 and 17 December.Further to the work of the task force, the President of the European Council was asked to undertake consultations on a limited change to the EU treaties required in order to establish a permanent crisis mechanism to safeguard the financial stability of the euro area. Levies and taxes in the financial sector: the European Council took note of a report from the Council highlighting the risk of competitive distortions arising from the uncoordinated introduction of levies by the member states, and assessing the potential for the possible introduction of a financial transactions tax or a financial activities tax. It asked the Council to report back on the issue of levies in December, and acknowledged that different options regarding taxation of the financial sector should be examined, as well as practices aimed at impeding tax havens and tax evasion.

• 2010/10/29 Additional information

Documents

• Debate in Council: 3045
• Debate in Council: 3047
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)