The European Movement International believes that comprehensive reform of the Economic and Monetary Union is needed to ensure the future of the European Union. Key areas for improvement include the establishment of a High Representative for the Eurozone, a ‘Eurozone budget’ and a social dimension to the EMU. Enhanced decision-making powers, rule-enforcement, and risk-sharing at the European level should also be accompanied by a stronger ability of national parliaments to scrutinise the decisions of their national governments.

With this in mind, a new policy position adopted by the European Movement International calls on European leaders to carry out the following reform measures:

• Adopt a true political union for the genuine European Economic Governance and an effective common European economic policy.
• Increase the executive powers of the European Commission to act as the Eurozone’s economic government, coupled with the establishment of a High Representative for the Eurozone to help coordinate economic and fiscal policies, and handle crisis situations.
• Strengthen the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, with special information rights and scrutiny responsibilities, extending the co-decision procedure on EMU issues to ensure the involvement of the European Parliament in EMU decision-making.
• Create an additional fiscal capacity for the EMU, drawn from new forms of own resources. This could be used to promote structural reforms, increase economic convergence, and mitigate asymmetric macro-economic shocks.
• Introduce risk sharing through the common issuance of debt in the form of Eurobonds, to increase financial and monetary stability.
• Create a European Unemployment Insurance Scheme to provide the necessary automatic stabilisers and function as a stabilisation and solidarity mechanism.
• Mainstream the social dimension by introducing binding common social convergence criteria, an obligatory minimum support scheme, parameters for minimum wages and minimum income, and the integration of social policy objectives in macroeconomic and budgetary surveillance.

Petros Fassoulas, Secretary General, European Movement International, said:
“The economic crisis has exposed the structural shortcomings in the setup of the current Economic and Monetary Union. An improved and comprehensive policy is necessary for Europe’s economic growth, as well as for the euro to be a stable and durable currency. Moreover, we need to ensure public participation and that means involving all stakeholders in European integration in order to ensure the legitimacy of the decision-making and implementation process. That is why the European Movement is calling for key innovations, such as the establishment of a High Representative for the Eurozone, a ‘Eurozone budget’ and a social dimension to the EMU.”

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Notes to the Editors
1. The full policy position referenced above can be found here.
2. On Thursday 12 November the European Movement International will be holding an event entitled ‘What kind of Monetary Union does Europe need?’. Register to attend here: http://ow.ly/Ug3HV
3. The European Movement International (EMI) is one of the largest pan and pro-European civil society organisations with currently more than 70 Member Organisations, bringing together representatives from European associations, political parties, enterprises and trade unions. wwweuropeanmovement.eu