The last few years at the European Parliament have been dominated by work related to pulling the EU’s economy out of recession and averting a monetary crisis. Through all of this, my work, as president of the EPP Workers Group in the European Parliament, has been to ensure that the need to boost employment remains an integral part of any recession and crisis-busting strategy at the European level.

…decisions that could impose such great financial burdens on taxpayers will no longer be taken with fear
or favour
- Ria Oomen-Ruijten

In this task I have had the good fortune of being able to rely on the work of MEP David Casa, vice-president of the EPP Workers Group, who will also be hosting the group’s annual general assembly in Malta this week.

On a subject that so often falls victim to polemics, Mr Casa, as our vice-president, has been instrumental in bridging differences within our political group and ensuring that we maintain solidarity in the face of common challenges. Perhaps the biggest of these challenges that policymakers currently face is the urgent task of consolidating national economic policies while limiting the social impact that this policy route could have in the short to medium term.

While the European People’s Party believes in responsible fiscal policy, we also believe in having adequate systems of social security in place. As the need for governments to curb spending grows in the face of Europe’s debt crisis, one of these values will have to be tempered. During the general assembly in Malta, the MEPs who form part of the EPP Workers Group will discuss how to do this – how to rein in public sector spending without impacting, as far as possible, on the provision of public goods.

In this, the general assembly will benefit from expert speakers and politicians with battlefield experience, from Greece and Portugal, of restraining public spending when faced with the prospect of default and social upheaval. In this context, where Europe jerks from crisis to crisis, it is essential that policymakers do what it takes to break away from the temptation of quick fix solutions. It is our immediate concern that we staunch the letting of Europe’s monetary credibility. But we should also keep a wary eye on the future and fight the urge to take myopic decisions.

This is why that while national governments are trying to fix the crisis in certain members of the euro area, the European Parliament has been proactive in shifting the focus to preventing anything similar happening in the future. We are trying to push through a package of measures to better monitor member state budgets and deficits, as well as policy measures to calculate and recalibrate imbalances between EU economies.

An important part of this is transparency. Both in terms of what financial statistics we are working with as well as in terms of how decisions are taken among member states. Voting in the Council under the Stability and Growth Pact is done on a qualified majority basis and in a relatively non-transparent manner – that is, when a eurozone member transgresses the rules a majority needs to be secured in Council for enforcement measures to be taken against the recalcitrant. This has historically been difficult due the horse-trading that goes on at the lower-level and less public negotiations in the Council.

How can we change this? Well, the most elegant and effective solution is the most politically controversial one. We are seeking to see the voting rules changed so that reverse qualified majority voting is applied. This means that the Council would have to vote to stop – rather than initiate – measures being imposed on members that do not correctly apply Stability and Growth Pact rules. This introduces a strong element of automaticity in the way decisions are taken and with automaticity comes transparency. Importantly, this means that decisions that could impose such great financial burdens on taxpayers will no longer be taken with fear or favour.

The author is the chairman of the EPP Workers Group Assembly.

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