FRANKFURT (MNI) – EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs
Olli Rehn warned against unnecessarily altering the EU Treaty, arguing
there was enough scope within the current framework to enhance the
supervision of member states’ fiscal affairs.
“We are not ruling out any changes to the treaty, but we first need
some analysis to ensure that any changes are really necessary,” Rehn
argued in an interview with German business daily Financial Times
Deutschland published Tuesday.
Rehn’s comments put him at odds with German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, who on Friday again pushed her idea of an EU Treaty change to
allow the Commission to put more pressure on members states which breach
the deficit rules.
Rehn said there was still plenty of room within the existing treaty
framework for improving coordination and tightening the oversight of
national household budgets, which he said would enhance the functioning
of the Eurozone.
Rehn said all member states needed to submit to such controls,
which should extend to the budgetary planning stage.
This oversight has to extend to all member states, he argued: “The
strictest scrutiny had to be borne by those states that had broken the
rules governing the Stability and Growth Pact.”
Eurobonds — or “stability bonds”, as the Commission has now dubbed
them — would improve the financial stability of the Eurozone, Rehn
declared, adding that he hoped for a substantive discussion in Germany,
which is opposed to the idea of eurobonds.
German Finance Minister Philipp Roesler on Monday reaffirmed his
opposition to introducing joint eurobonds in the Eurozone.
“It would be wrong simply to collectivize public debt,” Roesler
said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Berlin.
–Frankfurt Bureau +49 69 720 142; email: frankfurt@marketnews.com–
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