Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-11-30-Speech-3-134-000"
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"en.20111130.16.3-134-000"2
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"−
Mr President, in tackling this report, Parliament is tackling the issue of democratic legitimacy in the context of economic policy.
As for the issue of how to achieve this, we also call for this Parliament to be involved, alongside the national parliaments, by means of an agreement. Democratic legitimacy is what gives the European Union added value.
At a time when everyone is wondering about how economic policy will be handled and about the fate that the forthcoming Council meeting has in store for that policy for the member countries of the euro area, it is important for the European Parliament to express its opinion in order to establish what the democratic legitimacy of the debate on an economic policy coordinated at EU level might consist of.
The European Commission has put forward the idea of a European semester in order to give direction to this debate before it takes place in the national parliaments. We believe that, as part of this European semester, we, the European Parliament, must be able to have our say with regard to the Annual Growth Survey that the European Commission is tabling as a key document for this debate.
We believe that this document should be an economic policy-making document, which is why we are proposing that, in future, the Commission describe this document as what it is: not an annual growth survey, but an economic policy-making document aimed at sustainable growth. Because, otherwise, it is clear that economic policy coordination at Heads of State or Government level will go in an altogether different direction, that of a Euro Plus Pact, for example, or of who knows what other procedure they might invent in the future.
No, we need a document from the Commission that gives direction to this debate, that incorporates the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy and, of course, those of the Stability and Growth Pact. To ensure this, we also call for the European Parliament to be able to intervene straight away with quasi-codecision powers before the Spring European Council, and for the President of this institution, when he represents us at that Council, to be able to defend changes to this strategy, to this economic policy stance, on the basis of the mandate we shall give him. We also call for these powers to be recognised explicitly ascodecision powers in the future.
Throughout this process, we believe that our cooperation with the national parliaments really must help to create this democratic legitimacy. This means that in February, before the Spring European Council, we must organise this meeting with the national parliaments in order to discuss what this economic policy stance will consist of. We must do so on the basis of what has already taken place and what is set to take place within this Parliament not only on the initiative of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, but also in cooperation with other committees, such as the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. Then, once the European Council is over, we must organise a further debate, perhaps on a smaller scale, when the national parliaments themselves will have to ratify their national reform programmes.
Lastly, we believe that this Parliament will clearly have to adapt to this new situation if it wants to be involved in this debate to establish the democratic legitimacy of the entire process. To ensure this, we know that we will have to adapt our ways of working, our practices to what is currently being implemented by both the Council and the Commission, and we state in this report that we are ready to do so.
Lastly, with regard to the still uncertain prospect of a possible Treaty reform, we would make the following strong point: under the Treaty of Lisbon, this Parliament has rights that make it a key player in any Treaty reform process. We have already been consulted once on the reform of the Treaty when the European Stability Mechanism was implemented, and at that time we authorised this reform without an agreement. Given the issues that could potentially be discussed, we confirm today that we shall not allow such a reform to take place without an agreement.
Discussions will have to be held with Parliament on both the time frame and the content of such a reform. It cannot simply be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union, so that economic policy is turned into a form of competition policy. We want this mandate to be a mandate for laying the foundations of EU economic policy, a solidarity and growth policy that is based on democratic legitimacy."@en1
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