Blog Articles

By Maxime Gehrenbeck, Social Platform Intern working on Social Policy

Last Tuesday [15 September], Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of the Euro & Social Dialogue, and Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, were given the opportunity to present their views on the implementation of the Five Presidents’ Report before the Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) Committee of the European Parliament during a session I attended. As they both explained, the report proposes to divide the process of completion of the Economic and Monetary Union into two main stages. The first one consists in a set of actions that can be taken within the current European legal framework. The second one refers to more in-depth changes that have to be made to the functioning of the EMU, including measures that could require the ratification of a new Treaty.

The fact that Pierre Moscovici insisted several times on the importance of solidarity within the euro zone and the European Union should be welcomed. Valdis Dombrovskis also expressed his conviction that the issue of inequality had to be seriously tackled, and that better use of unemployment and social indicators is needed in the context of the European Semester. It is regrettable, however, that neither Commissioner made reference to access to adequate education and effective social protection systems; although they are mentioned in the report. Unfortunately they did not discuss the question of adequate minimum wage either, even though this point was raised by Hugues Bayet MEP (S&D).

The skepticism of a significant number of MEPs about this split of the completion of the EMU into two sequences is also legitimate. While Pierre Moscovici and Valdis Dombrovskis could easily explain the immediate steps the Commission intends to take to strengthen the current governance framework, such as the creation of independent competitiveness authorities or a more systematic implementation of the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure, they were less convincing when asked about concrete proposals concerning the second stage. The only thing the two Commissioners could confirm with certainty was the creation of an expert group in charge of preparing a White Paper that would be released by spring 2017. This is rather unsatisfactory. If this second step is supposed to lead, as argued by Pierre Moscovici, to an EMU of solidarity and democracy, concrete proposals should not be put off indefinitely.

The risk here is evident, and was denounced by Pervenche Berès MEP (S&D) during the debate: a first stage that is the stick of discipline, and the second stage the carrot that never comes. We should be careful and make sure that the “stable and prosperous place for all citizens of the EU member states that share the single currency” announced in the report is not purely illusionary.