MEPs scrutinise summit solutions to euro-zone's hardship

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy found MEPs in trenchant mood Wednesday when he reported back to them on the conclusions reached by European leaders at their summit last month. MEPs took a critical look at the summit's solutions to the current euro-zone crisis, with many demanding a more ambitious European approach to current difficulties
Mr Van Rompuy told MEPs there was wide divergence of views, but as the final agreement proves, “the Union's capacity to find compromise remains intact”. He added that since the “IMF is after all financed by EU money” its involvement in resolving the crisis in Greece is not a cause for apprehension.

Greece and the IMF

Austrian Socialist Hannes Swoboda disagreed, saying the summit was disappointing, especially on Greece. He said that leaving help in the hands of the IMF meant giving up a common economic policy in favour of a technocratic approach. “The Council is like the Titanic - they hit an iceberg and as a response they set up a task-force.”

German Green Rebecca Harms said the “only good thing to come out of the Summit is that it put an end to an undignified battle between Paris and Berlin.”

MEPs critical of “mechanism”

EU leaders agreed on mechanisms to tackle the Greek crisis notably bilateral and IMF loans at non-subsidised interest rates if the Greek debt market dries up.

Belgian Liberal Guy Verhofstadt voiced serious doubts about the Greece mechanism, because it's based on bilateral loans instead of European solutions. He said markets don't believe in it, because EU countries are bickering about what interest rate to charge and the spread on Greek bonds is getting wider (the spread is the difference between the interest rate that Greece pays on bonds and the rate on benchmark German bonds - it is widening meaning Greece has to pay more to borrow). “It's not the way to help Greece, with a mechanism that is not helping but hurting,” Mr Verhofstadt said.

“Greece was put under a very negative evaluation, and there was a lack of any commitment to help them, financially and politically.” Ms Harms said.

Improving economic governance

Mr Van Rompuy and Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič (who replaced Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso) focused on the need to improve economic policy coordination. “Behind budgetary problems lie economic problems,” so surveillance and governance mechanisms need to be strengthened, the Council President said.

But Dutch Christian Democrat Corien Wortmann-Kool said people want results not the “promise” of strengthened economic governance structures. She said the EPP Group is in favour of building on the Stability and Growth pact, especially its preventative arm. “Solidarity is a two-way street” and Greece needs to implement saving measures,“ she said. 

Lothar Bisky, a German member of the GUE/NGL group said, ”This response is not a European solution. We allow banks and financial markets to tell countries how they should spend citizens' money.“

All centralized EU plans have failed, so will economic government, UKIP's Nigel Farage said.

British Conservative Timothy Kirkhope said, ”all the talk about European solutions to the crisis should not be a pretext for extending the powers of the EU.“

Reporting back on first summit as chair

Mr Van Rompuy was speaking during a special plenary about the 25-26 March summit, the first he has chaired since taking up his position in December. In addition to the Greek situation, leaders also discussed the creation of a task force to come up with a crisis resolution framework and the EU's 2020 plan for jobs and growth.