http://euobserver.com/9/32086/?rk=1
Annual euro-pact summits will see refuseniks asked to leave the room -
LEIGH PHILLIPS - 29.03.2011
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Every year in the spring, governments that
have signed on to the 'euro-plus pact' will hold a summit to take stock
of its implementation, give management to new European economic
governance and to deliver the 'peer pressure' needed to bring into line
those countries that have not achieved the correct amount of ambition.
With 23 of the EU's member states now signed on to the pact for the
euro, not just the 17 countries that use the single currency, the
format for the summit will be '27-minus', in the phrasing of European
officials, rather than '17-plus'.
Euro-pact summits will take place every spring at the same time as the
quarterly European Council. As with the eurozone summit that followed a
special EU Council dedicated to the Libyan situation, those who are not
part of the euro 'in-crowd' - meaning the Czech Republic, Hungary,
Sweden and the UK - will then be asked to leave. A senior EU official,
who did not wish to be named, told reporters in Brussels on Monday:
"There will be now a yearly meeting of the 23 members, to evaluate the
euro-plus pact. It will be weird to tell the four others to leave the
room, but that will be the case, normally during the spring EU Council
in March."
Sweden for its part has not signed on as there is no majority in the
parliament that supports the document, but Stockholm has indicated that
it hopes to back the new economic oversight framework as soon as
political conditions change, a move that would leave the UK as the only
major European economy on the outside.
The senior EU official, briefly allowing a peek behind the curtain,
explained that governments, even those nervous about the single
currency, are desperate not to be left on the bottom tier in any
two-tier Europe, where the key decisions that affect everyone are made
by the top level. "I was struck by the political psychology of it," he
said. "A number of countries were very frustrated when they couldn't
attend the 11 March summit [of eurozone leaders], even for countries
who don't want to join the euro and where presidents are openly against
the euro [such as the Czech Republic]."
"Others who want to join the euro were afraid that by not adopting the
euro-plus pact it would be even more difficult to get into the euro [at
a later point]." The official also said there had been a sigh of
relief that agreement on economic restructuring had been achieved
before the bloc's increasingly volatile national political situations
further deteriorate.
In recent days, Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Nicolas Sarkozy
have been delivered bitter regional electoral setbacks, while Italy's
Silvio Berlusconi has returned to court accused of embezzlement.
Portugal's minority government has fallen and Finland is heading into a
general election where a eurosceptic party, the True Finns, is expected
to come second. "I'm happy the bulk of the structural reforms was
agreed before end of March," said the EU official, referring to the
recent elections in France and Germany. "Europe is not only a union of
27, it's also the sum of 27 national political situations."
He said matters are getting increasingly difficult as a result of
minority governments in Sweden, Denmark, Portugal and the Netherlands,
as well as the "situation" in Belgium - home to the longest caretaker
government in Western democratic history - and, he said, the rise of
populism in "most countries." The official also responded to the
recent violent anti-euro-pact demonstrations that hit Brussels,
wondering why the focus of the unions is only on the euro-pact and not
the 'six-pack' of new laws on economic governance as well.
"There's something strange about these protests. People have not
demonstrated against the taskforce report [a series of economic
governance recommendations published last October] or the six-pack
published by the commission, which are more binding and more
'anti-social' than the pact."
However, despite the electoral upheaval and civil opposition, the
senior official remained optimistic about the single currency. "I was
always confident the eurozone would not crumble," he said. In recent
months, EU leaders seem to have acknowledged more and more that they
are in this together, he continued, adding that a country cannot simply
leave the eurozone "as you walk out of a cafe" or default without
hitting the others too. He also mentioned that the situation in
Portugal is dire, but that any movement on a bail-out is unlikely to
come ahead before June.
"The political crisis doesn't help. They say they want to refinance
themselves and have a very strict plan, agreed by the ECB and [the
European Commission]. Up until June, there seems to be no problem with
that." Should Lisbon require the rescue however, decisions relating to
the matter would not require any special EU summit. "There is no need
for an extra EU Council meeting on Portugal. If something were to
happen, the decision would be taken by the [bail-out fund] and the
eurogroup," he explained, referring to the group of countries that use
the euro.
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