Europarlement stelt vragen over conclusies eerste Europese semester (en)

Met dank overgenomen van Pools voorzitterschap Europese Unie 2e helft 2011 i, gepubliceerd op dinsdag 25 oktober 2011.

Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Finance Mr Jacek Dominik on Tueday answered questions from Members of the European Parliament on the conclusions of the first European Semester.

Here are the excerpts from the Minister's remarks:

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We must remember that the European Semester and the Six Pack are not instruments that within two or three weeks are supposed to liberate us from the problems of the crisis. We cannot expect that by applying the European Semester there will be immediate improvement in the economic situation. We estimate, however, that thanks to the European Semester the macroeconomic dialogue in the EU will definitely improve.

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The European Semester is one of the new instruments designed to strengthen economic cooperation between Member States and to improve the implementation of EU priorities in this area. We have the European Semester, we have recently adopted the so-called Six-Pack, we also have the normal implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact. All these elements form a comprehensive unity, bringing much greater transparency and a much stronger dialogue. In addition, the European Semester guarantees the greatest possible democratic legitimacy, because all decisions remain in the national parliaments.

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Today we can only speak of a preliminary assessment of the European semester, since the full circle has not yet been completed. The process ends when the parliaments adopt national budgets, and then we can assess whether it has brought positive effects. However from an initial experience, we see that the process is most legitimate and desirable, and treated very seriously by both the Member States, national parliaments, as well as all EU institutions.