Economic policies of the Member States whose currency is the euro

Key points:

• The EESC welcomes the establishment of general economic policy guidelines for the countries of the euro area and supports the formulation of recommendations tailored to each country as well as measures to assess their implementation.
• However, the Committee regards the current macroeconomic policy mix as unbalanced, since it overlooks the significance of demand and distributive justice.
• The Committee calls for stricter regulation of financial markets taking account of the shadow banking systems and coordinated at G-20 level, as well as bringing back the financial system into line with the needs of the real economy.
• A credible solidarity-based safety net including a strong building on earned trust could ensure that any speculation against countries in difficulty is futile and thus reduce their financing costs.
• The EESC calls for a general re-think not only of expenditure but also of tax systems, with due regard for distributive justice.
• Policies should capitalise more on the fact that the negative income and employment multipliers of revenue-related measures are generally more limited than those of spending cuts.
• The Committee reiterates its call for a wage policy that makes full use of the scope for productivity, and rejects any state interference in the autonomous collective bargaining policy.
• The importance for competitiveness of non–price factors is often overlooked. Europe will only be successful in the global race if it pursues a "high road" strategy of high-quality added value.
• The Committee calls for a stronger role for the social partners and for closer Europe-wide coordination of wage policy, for example by introducing macroeconomic dialogue in the euro area.