The European Committee of the Regions believes that the present economic situation justifies an integrated approach towards completing Europe's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Hailing the Five Presidents' Report as a step in the right direction, rapporteur Paul Lindquist believes it is important that a balance must be found to "ensure progress without causing conflict", especially against the background of the UK negotiations and concern surrounding a two-speed Europe.
"This report is an important step forward. But, today, we need a greater focus on the core problems of the monetary union, namely current account imbalances which lead to inequalities in capital flows between countries and regions, deviations from sound policy and risk-taking."
Significant economic divergences continue to exist between countries, in terms of workforce productivity and wages, as well as their ability to compete in a global market. The CoR opinion underlines that in some cases, these discrepancies are larger within Member States than between them and stresses "social, economic and territorial disparities can only be reduced through a concept that is based on the 2020 strategy and includes a regional dimension and results-oriented cohesion policy." The rapporteur therefore calls for a broad Europe-wide consultation on the future territorial vision of the European Union to 2050.
The rapporteur also insists that Member States must have a responsible economic policy before being able to access the European economic stabilisation instruments and that their use goes hand in hand with structural reforms. Moreover, they should not aim to replace existing cohesion policy.
Further recommendations
- European Semester: a code of conduct to guarantee the involvement of local and regional authorities and inclusion of issues linked to regional disparities in the country reports and country-specific recommendations;
- Review of the Six Pack and Two Pack: an economic dialogue between the CoR and the European Commission;
- Annual reports on EMU public finances: a chapter on quality of public investment, including at subnational level plus a White Paper on quality of public investment in public spending.
- Transition between phase 1 and phase 2 of the EMU reform: CoR involvement in the preparation of the 2017 White Paper.