S&Ds push to make eurozone governance more stable and democratic
Date
14 Mar 2019
Sections
Euro & Finance
S&D MEPs Pedro Silva Pereira and Vladimír Maňka secured a strong majority in the European Parliament on proposals to make the functioning of the eurozone more stable and democratic.
Pedro Silva Pereira, S&D rapporteur for economic and monetary affairs, said:
"This report represents a very important step towards the democratisation of the economic governance of the euro area. The text ensures that the European Parliament will have a much stronger role towards the ESM activities, based on a two-steps approach strategy. As a first step, the Parliament suggests the establishment of an interim protocol for an Interim Memorandum of Cooperation with the ESM, suggesting an immediate number of improvements towards more transparency and accountability in the decision-making process. The Parliament proposes, also, that the Managing Director of the reformed ESM should be elected by and report to the European Parliament. In the medium term the Parliament recalls its support for the full integration of the ESM into EU law, which will give to the Parliament full democratic powers over the ESM activities. The text carried adopts an ambitious approach and represents an important contribution for the ongoing political debate on the deepening of the European Monetary Union (EMU)."
Vladimír Maňka, S&D rapporteur for budgetary affairs, added:
"Provisional agreements between member states, as we have seen in the ESM, reduce the capacity to react swiftly to economic and financial shocks. The future inclusion of the ESM in the EU legal framework will strengthen its ‘fire power’ and effectiveness. This inclusion should also be understood as part of the completion of the Economic and Monetary Union. The financial assistance provided to member states can be complemented by budgetary instruments to promote economic and financial stabilisation, investment and upward socioeconomic convergence in the euro area. The ESM should not be limited only to the euro area, but available to all the EU member states."