Ahead of an important debate in the Bundestag, S&D Group President, Udo Bullmann, urged hawks in the conservative CDU/CSU parliamentary group to accept a fully integrated European Monetary Fund (EMF).

 

Udo Bullmann stated: ”Led by their group vice-president Ralph Brinkhaus, parts of the German conservatives are trying to derail the project of transforming the European Stability Mechanism into a genuine, community method-based European Monetary Fund. This is an ideological attack on the future of the Economic and Monetary Union and disregards the experience of the Euro crisis.

 

Over the weekend, it transpired that Brinkhaus is set to table a draft resolution in the framework of a debate scheduled for next Tuesday.

 

“The draft text is completely out of touch with what we have learned over the past number of years and with what we need in terms of solid Eurozone reform. Instead of an EMF as a Union institution, the resolution envisages a purely intergovernmental set-up in which neither the European Parliament nor the Commission have a role. The Euro crisis has shown, however, that this model of decision-making lacks legitimacy, is ineffective and is thus unfit for the job it has to perform in a well-functioning and crisis-proof Economic and Monetary Union. It is hard to imagine how bigoted the hardliners in the CDU/CSU group must be not to see the urgent need to learn from past mistakes.

 

“Reforming the Euro area is rightly a key priority in the German coalition agreement. The Brinkhaus proposals contradict the spirit of these commitments and in comparison would even make the failed dogmatism of the Schäuble era look progressive. As socialists and democrats in the European Parliament, we will keep fighting for a proper EMF managed in the framework of the community method”.