EUROPEAN COUNCIL: EUROZONE FIX CAN’T WAIT ANY LONGER

13/12/2018
Press Release
UEF

The European Federalists set out their proposals in an open letter to the Heads of State and Government.

“The political agenda of these days is dominated by Brexit, but it is the decisions on the Eurozone that will make the upcoming European Council and Eurosummit a success or failure” states Sandro GOZI, President of the Union of European Federalists. “After years of discussions and long negotiations, there is no reason to further postpone or water-down decisions needed to fix the architecture and policies of the Eurozone. We need to seize this opportunity as long as the current economic upswing lasts”.

The European Federalists set out their proposals in an open letter to the Heads of State and Government:

  1. The Banking Union needs to be supported as soon as possible by a common fiscal backstop.
  2. The European Stability Mechanism should be able to support Member States in difficulty at an early stage and with more flexibility of action.
  3. The European Commission and the European Parliament should have a greater role in designing, approving and implementing assistance programmes.
  4. The Eurozone should have its own budget, prospectively financed by own resources, for investments but also for stabilization of the Eurozone economy. The proposals submitted by France and Germany are welcome but greater ambition is needed on the size, role and governance of the Eurozone budget.
  5. A European unemployment (re)-insurance scheme could support Member States hit by high unemployment and help stabilizing the Eurozone economy.


Here the full text of the letter.

EDITORN'S NOTE

The Union of European Federalists (UEF) is a pan-European, non-governmental political organisation dedicated to the promotion of European political unity. For more than 70 years UEF has been a leading voice in the promotion of European unity and an early campaigner for key milestones in the development of the European Communities and then the European Union. With 25 national sections and over 400 local groups across Europe, UEF promotes a federal Europe among citizens and political representatives at all levels of government.

Sandro GOZI is the President of Union of European Federalists, he was the Secretary of State for European Affairs in the Renzi and Gentiloni Governments (2014-2018) and Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies (2006-2018). Prior to that, he was a diplomat and then spent more than a decade in the European institutions notably as a European Commission official (1996-2000) and then as member of the Cabinet of European Commission President Romano Prodi (2000-2004) and advisor to European Commission President Jose Barroso.

Press contacts:

Bruxelles: Valentina Presa, valentina.presa@federalists.eu, +32.2.5083030

Rome: Lorena Vetro, vetrolorena@gmail.com, +39.338.7800683

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