Pope Francis participarting in the European Parliament plenary session on October 25 before a meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker, Herman van Rompuy, President of the European Council, and Matteo Renzi, Italian Prime Minister and President in office of the Council of the EU
On Friday (28.11.2014) a soft EU Commission gave France and other finance sinners more lead time in order to decrease deficits and debts despite protest from hawkish Germany. Earlier in the week an optimistic Commission presented an investment master plan to boost European growth while Pope Francis preached to put people before economy in the European Parliament.
The European Parliament in Strasbourg was the place for action this week. In the course of just two days the Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, passed a vote of no-confidence and presented a master plan for European investments that is supposed to give hope to the European economy.
A message of hope was also given by Pope Francis who visited the Parliament on Tuesday (25.11.2014).
In Brussels the main happening was the European Commission decision to give France and two other troubled countries more time to get their finances in order.
Soft Commission gives respite to finance sinners
The European Commission decided on Friday (28.11.2014) to give more lead time to three member states which risk to seriously breach the EU finance rules in the so called Stability and Growth Pact.
The finance sinners are France, which has a too large deficit exceeding the EU limit of three percent of GDP, and Italy and Belgium, which are troubled with high levels of debt way over the 60 percent of GDP limit.
The countries could face heavy fines due to their non-compliance, but after having sent letters to the Commission, the EU authority decided to give them until spring next year to get their finances on track.
“For three countries, France, Italy and Belgium, the Commission will examine their situation in relation to the Growth and Stability Pact in March 2015. It’s three member states that are engaged on the highest level, prime ministers level, to adopt and implement structural reforms to facilitate growth as of the beginning of 2015″, said EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, explaining that the decision was both economically and politically sound.
The troubled countries argue that deficit and debt tackling measures in an environment with no growth will only make things worse. However, hawkish member states like Germany are not happy with the soft treatment.
They say it could damage EU credibility when small countries like Greece and Portugal are imposed tough reforms while bigger countries like France get off the austerity hook.
The matter is also sensitive for the Commission as the responsible Commissioner is the former French finance minister, Pierre Moscovici. During the press conference he stressed though that all measures, including fines, are still on the table. France and the other sinners will have to deliver to avoid tougher treatment.
Pope Francis forgot women
In the Parliament Pope Francis didn’t talk much about sin or finance.
As expected he underlined the importance of human rights and solidarity, in particular concerning illegal immigration. He also argued to put people before profit and economy.
What the Pope didn’t talk about, though, was women, which made EU Parliamentarian Ulrike Lunacek disappointed.
“I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed about the fact that he didn’t address any of the other urgent things inside the church and outside: women’s issues, women’s rights inside the church. Today is the international day against violence against women. I think he should have mentioned something like that. It would be great if he had spoken up in favour of same-sex marriage or also for the use of contraceptive for example, especially in times of HIV or in other situations, it is helpful. But I didn’t hear and that was a bit disappointing,” Lunacek said.
Juncker presented investment master plan
The other main happening in the Parliament was the Commission investment package. A 300 billion euro investment plan was Juncker’s big promise to European citizens before being elected as President of the Commission.
On Wednesday, 26 November, it was time for him to walk the talk.
Juncker presented an investment plan where a relative small amount of public EU money will become hundreds of billions in investments. The Commission will take eight billion euros from the EU budget to give a guarantee worth 16 billion. The European Investment Bank will chip in another five.
The 21 billion are then expected to be multiplied by 15 through so-called leverage and contribution from private investors, giving real investments worth 315 billion euros between 2015-17.
The plan is supposed to boost growth and according to the Juncker team it could create one million jobs and add some 400 billion euros to EU GDP. However, financial experts are skeptical.
“If we talk about 400 billion euros we are talking about maybe four percent of the GDP of the euro area. And what we have now is basically zero growth. So the assumption here is that it will be a very large impact on the economy and this, I think, is really not fully realistic”, Cinzia Alcidi, economic policy expert at the Centre for European Policy Studies, told Euranet Plus.
A majority in the Parliament welcomed the Juncker plan, though. And later they also gave him thumbs up in a confidence vote.
Following the Luxleaks scandal, the right-wing parties gathered enough signatures to do a vote of no-confidence against the Juncker Commission. As expected, it didn’t fly, 461 member out of 751 rejected the demand.
Budget squarrel hit EU credibility
The budget of the EU for 2015, which is yet to be agreed, was also discussed in the Parliament in the weekly “U Talking to Me?” debate organized by the Euranet Plus News Agency.
The pile of unpaid EU bills has now reached 28 billion euros and according to Petri Sarvamaa, Finnish EU parliamentarian, this could damage the union’s reputation as many organisations, small companies and students depend on EU funding.
EU divided over Russia
The EU is also arguing about how to deal with Russia. Some want to impose tougher sanctions, but others are more dependant on the bear in the east and prefer smoother diplomacy. (audio in Latvian)
“Divisions within the EU are quite big. There are countries which have little to lose and which have low trade balance with Russia. And there are countries which are directly dependent on Russia. And now, when winter is coming and Russian gas deliveries are needed, beefing up sanctions against Russia becomes even more hesitant,” Rinalds Gulbis, analyst at the Centre for East European Policy Studies in Latvia, told Euranet Plus partner Latvijas Radio.
- Author: Andreas Liljeheden, Euranet Plus News Agency
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