Today, 19 October, the European Commission announces its new communication on the reform of the EU economic governance framework. This is the first step towards a proposal to review the Stability and Growth Pact. However, the proposed questions for the Commission’s consultation fail to address the key issues with the existing fiscal framework and appear to be a continuation of the current approach. An overhaul of the current rules is particularly important, to address the macro-economic challenges the EU faces and the climate emergency.
MEP Sven Giegold, financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group commented:
“The European Commission is acting as if it had nothing to do with the failure of the current fiscal regime. The European Commission has never taken decisive measures to enforce the current rules. The macroeconomic imbalances procedure has been downgraded to a bureaucratic exercise. We need rules which are understandable and enforceable. The Commission’s proposals are lacking in clarity. The questions put forward by Commissioner Gentiloni do not address the debt rule although it is unenforceable. We need rules which enable investments into our common future. We need sound criteria to ensure future-proof investments which meet strict sustainability criteria. Solidarity needs trust based on sound common rules. A joint commitment to a necessary degree of flexibility needs to be based on clear and science-based rules to identify future-proof investments.”