Danish EU presidency must reject 'euro-ideology'
by Anna Rosbach
The Danish government has taken over the presidency of the European Council in one of the most critical periods for the European Union. In order to overcome the crisis, the presidency should focus on competitiveness, growth and the single market. As a Danish MEP, I have been looking forward to the presidency. Denmark has a tradition of being very efficient and professional. But whether the presidency will be a success remains to be seen.
The most important challenge at the moment is the economic crisis. It is a crisis with great personal impact for many citizens of all member states and it is also a threat to social cohesion in EU countries. Right now, 14 million young people in Europe are without a job. If we want to avoid large-scale social marginalisation and social unrest, we need to create economic growth and new jobs. Unfortunately the last council was a missed opportunity. Instead of facing the above challenges in a realistic way, the council embarked on new talks of financial harmonisation and institutional change. This will, however, not solve the current crisis. And it drives time and political attention away from necessary reforms.
The Danish presidency must be realistic and face the truth about the eurozone. The euro cannot survive in its current form and the continuous attempts to save it by huge bail-outs and economic harmonisation are simply bad economics. Some countries have to leave the eurozone, in order for them to get their own economy moving again - to start over. This is what the markets tell us and this is what is best for both the countries leaving and for the eurozone as a whole. The European leaders must stop their euro-ideology and start listening to the economy. The crisis reflects the underlying economic weakness. Europe has long been losing competitiveness and this will not be regained by any fiscal pact. The new presidency should focus on stimulating economic growth and developing the single market.
Introducing a common tax on financial transactions is a step in the wrong direction. I, therefore, welcome the presidency's decision to speak out against such a tax. I also welcome, that the presidency has made it a key priority to revitalise the single market. The immediate economic challenges should, though, not hinder the presidency in moving forward with the important reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy. In a time of austerity in member states, the presidency should seek to lower the budget of these subsidies significantly. We know that neither the agricultural subsidies nor the fisheries subsidies are working in their current form, and that they constitute a significant cost for the citizens. We must stop to pay for policies, that don't have the effect we seek. Furthermore, reaching an agreement on the Energy Efficiency Directive is of high importance and the Danish presidency should prioritise this issue. I hope we will see a realistic presidency that will work towards concrete results that will benefit the citizens in Europe.
Anna Rosbach MEP is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament
I think that we should go with the euro as you never know it might just be the best thing that has happened for us in a long time. Our children are out of jobs, most of us are out of jobs and all you people can think about is we are not going to be part of them; we have our own money. Well, we don't. If we did, then we would not be in the mess we are just now.
Willy - Denmark
It's good to see Europe taking a global leadership position on the financial transactions tax. It's also very important to continue the push to ever closer union so that Europe may shift to become one of the pillars of the global economy. Europe should be proud of its quality, style, class and culture - and should not be shy to let the world see it. It will be better to ignore the small-minded nationalists, who wish to return to pre WW2 times when their small country was relatively more powerful. Now is the time for Europe.
pmcdonald - London
I hope that Denmark as a presidency will truly help to curb constant attempts by European Commission and some parts of European Parliament to expand centralistic tendencies of grabbing more powers for Brussels from member states and undermining fundamental subsidiarity principle which should govern the EU. Examples: look a the current draft legislation on banks so called CRD IV where instead of having that fundamental piece of legislation as a directive which will be then transposed to national legislation, the EC in July 2011 proposed that there will be just a general directive while the "meat" of the key legal provisions will be directly applicable through EC regulation. This in practice means limiting substantially legal powers of member states' governments while keeping at the same time members states fully fiscally responsible for rescuing local banking systems in case of problems. So we see the EC grabing powers to issues binding regulations on banks that define the rules of the game and might have impact on safety and soundness of banks - including the smallest local banks - but not taking financial responsibility by EC as such responsibility will stay with local goverments of MS. Hence, more power but not responsibility. Equally important, the maximum harmonization principle and single rule book under the flag of avoiding regulatory arbitrage will again substantially limit powers of local governments and supervisory agencies to apply more stringent regulations when needed. Is this what Europe needs? And all of that under the slogans claming that such centralisation of power stems from lessons from financial crisis. Just propaganda that reminds me old Soviet tricks to centralise and control more and more from Moscow. We will end up like former COMICOM countries where all major decisions were taken in Moscow and not in "independent" countries.
Peter - Poland, WARSAW
Leaving aside the ongoing eurozone crisis, the Danish EU presidency will not stir up the difficult issues - which every presidency inherits and passes on six months later – our secret columnist insists
