Five Presidents' Report: on the Economic and Monetary Union
Social, economic and territorial disparities can only be reduced through a regional dimension and results-oriented cohesion policy. This is the main message of the opinion on the Five Presidents' Report by Paul Lindquist which was adopted by the members of the European Committee of the Regions during their plenary session on 7 April in Brussels.
The European economy is slowly emerging from the economic crisis but is still marked by fragile growth, high unemployment and economic disparities, which are sometimes larger within Member States than between them. The Five Presidents' Report* sets out a plan to strengthen the Economic and Monetary Union** (EMU) by 2025 to make it more resilient to economic shocks, introducing reforms to make the EMU more democratically legitimate and consolidate the quick fixes of recent years.
For Paul Lindquist (SE/EPP), rapporteur of the draft opinion and Commissioner of Stockholm County Council, adopting an integrated approach and addressing regional disparities are of the utmost importance with a view to tackling social and territorial inequalities, boosting growth and jobs and improving competitiveness and cohesion within the EMU and the EU i.
"In order to achieve a more stable situation we need to consolidate our public finances and, at the same time, implement structural reforms, stimulate investment at all levels of government and make the EU more competitive, without losing sight of employment and welfare. This process has to start and end in the cities and regions. Start with their fore-front knowledge fed into the processes of deepening the EMU and end with consistent implementation, also at a local and regional level", said Mr Lindquist.
The CoR rapporteur further emphasised that more focus is needed on addressing the core problems of the Monetary Union, namely current account imbalances caused by differences in productivity growth, which also leads to imbalances in capital flows between countries and regions.
Local and regional leaders also call for the CoR to be involved in preparing the White Paper on the transition between phase 1 and phase 2 of the reform of the EMU and advocate the structured involvement of local and regional authorities in the European Semester through a code of conduct.
The members of the CoR further stress that country reports and country-specific recommendations should specifically address issues linked to regional disparities, and reiterate their call for a golden rule that keeps long-term investment separate from current expenditure.
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*The Five Presidents' Report has been prepared by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker i, in close cooperation with the President of the Euro Summit, Donald Tusk i, the President of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem i, the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi i, and the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz i, following discussion with Member States and civil society.
** The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) involves the coordination of economic and fiscal policies, a common monetary policy and a common currency, the euro. Whilst all 28 EU Member States take part in the economic union, some countries have taken integration further and adopted the euro as their common currency.
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Carmen Schmidle
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