Completing EMU - the next European legislature

Key points:

Besides fiscal discipline, flanking economic and social policies for growth and jobs as key factors underpinning successful consolidation must be worked out simultaneously by the EU and the Member States. Common confidence building must replace mistrust and tensions. Therefore the EESC calls on the next European legislature to establish urgently a roadmap to tackle the pressing problems. To this end, the EESC proposes:

1. The completion of EMU, ensured by a robust governance and management structure of the euro area and based on:

• a monetary and financial pillar, including the implementation of a fully-fledged EU-driven Banking Union to bring about a pan-European capital market, while also protecting taxpayers from excessive risk-taking and disorderly defaults;
• an economic pillar to strengthen the decision-making process in economic policy, thus fostering growth, employment, competitiveness, convergence and European solidarity;
• a social pillar to take properly into account, among other factors, the social effects of economic adjustments;
• a political pillar, including greater accountability and democratic legitimacy, to foster credibility and confidence.

2. The launch, as a matter of urgency, of a real European plan for growth and employment based on a substantial investment programme triggering a fiscal impulse. The rebalancing and proper implementation of existing instruments should be ensured;

3.   The establishment of a timeline and arrangements for the launch of political Europe as a whole, including through a reflection process on its institutional set-up in the context of a new European convention;

4.   The launch of a communication and simplification strategy on EMU, as a joint effort by the Commission, EP, Member States and civil society.

Rapporteurs : Joost van IERSEL and Carmelo CEDRONE