EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
2009 - 2014
Plenary sitting
10.6.2013
B7-0277/2013
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION
to wind up the debate on the statements by the Council and the Commission
pursuant to Rule 110(2) of the Rules of Procedure
on Preparations of the European Council of 27 and 28 June 2013 democratic
decision making in the future EMU
(2013/2672(RSP))
Gabriele Zimmer, Marie-Christine Vergiat, Alda Sousa, Marisa Matias,
Nikolaos Chountis, Younous Omarjee, Willy Meyer
on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group
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B7-0277/2013
European Parliament resolution on Preparations of the European Council of 27 and
28 June 2013 democratic decision making in the future EMU
(2013/2672(RSP))
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the Euro Area Summit Statement of 29 June 2012,
– having regard to the Commission Blueprint for a Deep and Genuine Economic and
Monetary Union of 28 November 2012,
– having regard to the report by the President of the European Council on ‘Towards a
Genuine Economic and Monetary Union’ of 5 December 2013,
– having regard to the conclusions of the European Council of 13/14 December 2012,
– having regard to the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic
and Monetary Union, hereinafter referred as the ‘Fiscal Compact’,
– having regard to the Commission communications on ‘Ex ante coordination of plans for
major economic policy reforms’ (COM (2013) 166) and on ‘The introduction of a
Convergence and Competitiveness Instrument’ (COM (2013) 165),
– having regard to the Country Specific Recommendations from the European Commission
of 29 May 2013,
– having regard to the IMF Country Report No. 13/156 of June 2013,
– having regard to Rule 110(2) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas the current economic and social crisis is the result of the European Union’s
neoliberal policies of promoting de-regulated financial markets, of liberalised markets in
products and services and the increasing financialisation of the economy as well as of
reducing public investment and increasing labour market deregulation;
B. whereas the answers provided by the EU, the ECB and the IMF (‘Troika’) to the
economic crisis where both politically and economically wrong; whereas in contrast to
forecasts the economic situation is constantly deteriorating leading to wide-spread
recession, poverty, social exclusion and unemployment;
C. whereas now even members of the Troika-system, notably the IMF, question their own
policies as it becomes increasingly apparent that the underlying assumptions, forecasts
and theoretical underpinnings have proven incorrect;
D. whereas democratic structures have been severely disrupted due to the imposed ‘market
discipline’; whereas the crisis management institutions (‘Troika’) and the European
Funding mechanisms (ESM, EFSF) are lacking democratic accountability;
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E. whereas the Fiscal Compact breaches in an unprecedented manner EU and national laws
as it removes fiscal policy choices from democratically elected governments of Member
States and blocks options of alternative economic policy making which would be urgently
needed for recovery;
F. whereas the new Commission proposals on ex-ante coordination of economic policy
reforms and the introduction of a convergence and competitiveness instrument are aimed
at further removing policy choices from Member States as they significantly reduce the
scope for action and alternative policies;
G. whereas the recent country specific recommendations continue to prescribe the wrong
medicine under questionable assumptions;
1. Is highly concerned about the intergovernmental method constantly applied by the
Council and calls on full and equal participation of the European and national parliaments
in matters of economic policy;
2. Condemns the EU policy of austerity and demands from the Council to reverse it;
considers the new and existing measures proposed by the Commission to be completely
insufficient for solving the crisis and for transforming the EU Member States into
democratic and inclusive societies to the benefit of all citizens;
3. Calls on the Council to take due consideration of recent studies e.g. by the IMF which
highlight that austerity policy has had devastating impacts not only in Greece but also in
the EU as a whole as economic assumptions e.g. on fiscal multiplier effects have proven
incorrect; stresses that debt levels have increased in the EU from 18 percent in 2008 to
25 percent in 2012 while at the same time the rich have even become wealthier;
4. Condemns any attempts to transpose the economically wrong and legally doubtful
agreements contained in the Fiscal Compact into EU law; rejects every imposition,
constraint and restriction that violates the sovereign right of peoples to decide their
economic policies;
5. Condemns the implicit ‘carrot and stick’ logic, disguised as a solidarity mechanism, of the
so called ‘convergence and competitiveness instrument’ which only aims to bribe people
for agreeing on wrong policy measures which aim at undermining workers and social
rights and that will further increase the gap between rich and poor;
6. Calls on the Council to reverse its failed policies as prescribed in the existing economic
governance packages, i.e. the six pack and two pack and to reject further Commission
proposals that remain in the same logic;
7. Rejects as part of the austerity policy the country specific recommendations of the
Commission as they represent largely a continuation of failed policies; is highly
concerned that the implementation of these recommendations will inevitably lead to
further increases of socio-economic disparities and an uneven distribution of wealth; calls
therefore on the Council to refrain from endorsing them;
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8. Calls on the Member States to promote real convergence by fighting tax evasion, by
abolishing tax havens including on their territories, by introducing taxes on wealth, by
increasing income taxes for those on the highest incomes, by ensuring effective corporate
taxes and by taxing the financial sector and their speculative financial products;
9. Deems the proposals on the Banking Union and the Single Supervisory Mechanism,
which places an undemocratic body (namely the ECB) that mainly acts in the interest of
the financial sector at the centre of financial supervision, to be fundamentally flawed and
to not address the massive problems that have piled-up on the financial markets in the past
decades;
10. Believes that a radical downsizing of the financial industry coupled with democratic
oversight is a prerequisite for economic recovery; calls on the Council to agree on an
effective fiscal stimulus package and to ensure that enterprises and ordinary people
instead of banks and speculators eventually benefit from the expansionary monetary
policy of the ECB;
11. Asks for a revision of the statutes of the ECB;
12. Demands that the debts of the banks are not placed on the shoulders of the people and
insists that no further bank bail-outs with public funds shall take place and that any future
ESM interventions shall be conducted under full democratic control;
13. Demands the cancelling of the so-called ‘Memoranda of Understanding’ between
member-states and the Troika as well as of measures emanating from these memoranda;
demands further the dissolution of the ‘Troika’; strongly believes that member-states need
to renegotiate their public debt, the extension of debt repayment, interests and amounts;
14. Reminds the Council of the EuroGroup commitment of June 2012 to separate banking and
sovereign debt which remains unimplemented; and calls on the Council to ensure that
legacy debt is eligible for recapitalisation through the ESM;
15. Demands political and democratic leadership in the development process by subordinating
economic decision-making to democratic political decision-making;
16. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and to the
parliaments of the Member States.
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