President Zimmer:“We want the EP role respected”
The Gue/Ngl, European United Left, wants to take the Fiscal compact to the European Court of Justice because, as his president Gabi Zimmer said: “It is in breach of EU law both from a formal and a material perspective”. But they would like to have the back of the Parliament, a quite difficult task because a lot of national parties, belonging to European People’s Party and Socialists & Democrats, already approved the pact in their countries. But for Zimmer it is not a mission impossible: “A lot of MEPs are tired to be systematically put aside, they want the central and democratic role of the EP be respected”.
The Fiscal Compact is an intergovernmental treaty that was signed on 2 March 2012 by 25 member states. The treaty will enter into force on the first day of January 2013 after its ratification by the twelfth eurozone member. Essentially it forces to enact laws requiring national budgets to be in balance or in surplus. At the moment 9 countries already approved it, including Italy that now will have to cut his deficit of 45 billions every year for 20 years.
During the discussion at the European Council United Kingdom and Czech Republic said that they would never accept such an interference in their own national fiscal law so the other nations opted for the treaty that it is not an EU measure and it was not approved by the European Parliament.
For this reason GUE/NGL says that it is illegitimate. They also asked the opinion of a German legal expert, professor Andreas Fischer-Lescano of the Centre of European Law and Politics, University of Bremen, that explained in a dossier that “the treaty is formally and materially in breach of EU law and violates the European Parliament’s rights of participation”. Now the dossier will be given to Martin Schulz, the EP President, to the other political groups and MEPs before asking their support to refer the issue to the ECJ.
Alfonso Bianchi
To learn more:
Download the dossier
2012_09_06_Fischer-Lescano_Gutachten-kurz_Fiskalpakt_060912 – EN
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