Euro-plus paktum

Az Euro-paktumhoz csatlakozik Bulgária, Románia, Lengyelország, Lettország, Litvánia és Dánia. Parlamenti támogatás hiányában az euro pact minus csoportba kerül Svédország, az adókedvezményeit féltő Csehország és Magyarország valamint a fiskális függetlenségére kényes Egyesült Királyság.

Az Euro-plus paktum országai kötelezettséget vállalnak arra, hogy a gazdasági kormányzás megerősítését célzó hat jogszabálycsomagot végrehajtják.

--------- A Stabilitási és Növekedési Egyezményben előírt kötelezettségek közül eddig főleg a költségvetési hiánycél betartására törekedtek, miközben háttérbe szorultak az államadósságra vonatkozó szabályok, ami kevéssé hitelessé tette az egész rendszert. Ami az államadósság mértékét illeti, korábban a Bizottság és a Tanács elnézte, ha a tagállamoknak a GDP arányában meghatározott államadóssága tartósan jóval 60 százalék fölé emelkedett. Az új javaslatok az eddiginél szigorúbban megkövetelik az adósságcsökkentést, például – egyéb releváns tényezők figyelembevétele mellett – bevezetik az úgynevezett 1/20-os szabályt. Ez azt jelenti, hogy ha egy ország államadóssága átlépi a 60 százalékos határt, akkor azt évente olyan mértékben kell csökkentenie, amely megfelel az államadósságnak a GDP 60 százalékát meghaladó része 1/20-ának, például 80 százalékos adósságráta esetén évente 1 százalékponttal.

Az államháztartással kapcsolatban az új szabályozás erősíteni kívánjak a megelőző jelleget. Arra ösztönzi a tagállamokat, hogy középtávon az államháztartási egyensúly elérésére törekedjenek. Így az egyensúlytól való távolodás pénzügyi szankciókat vonna maga után akkor is, amikor a hiány még nem lépte át a GDP 3 százalékában meghatározott felső határt.

Az államháztartási folyamatok ellenőrzése mellett külön jogszabály készül a makrogazdasági egyensúlytalanságok nyomon követéséről és elhárításáról. A javaslat értelmében monitoring rendszer épül ki a külső és belső egyensúlytalanságok figyelésére, és amennyiben bebizonyosodik, hogy ilyen helyzet állt elő, a Tanács az érintett tagállamot felkéri, hogy készítsen programot a probléma kezelésére, majd számon is kéri az intézkedések végrehajtását.

A költségvetési tervezésre vonatkozó legjobb európai gyakorlatok átvételét is előírja a csomag egyik jogszabálya, 2013 végi határidővel. A költségvetési tervezési folyamat átláthatóságáról van szó, és arról, hogy a tagállamok büdzséiben legyen középtávú kitekintés is. --------------

Megállapodás az állandó stabilitási mechanizmusról

Az ESM 500 milliárd euró tényleges hitelezési képességgel rendelkezik majd. A tagállamok által biztosított 700 milliárd eurós alaptőkéből 620 milliárd euró az előzőleg megállapított lehívható tőke és az eurózóna tagállamai által nyújtott állami garanciavállalás kombinációja lesz, míg a fennmaradó 80 milliárd eurót készpénzben fizetik be az országok. Megegyeztek arról is, hogy azok a tagállamok, amelyekben az egy főre eső GDP nem éri el az uniós átlag 75 százalékát, az eurócsatlakozást követő 12 éves időszakra kedvezményt kapnak, így átmenetileg kevesebb hozzájárulást kell majd befizetniük.

Addig is, amíg az ESM működni nem kezd, a tagállamok garantálják a 2010-ben ideiglenesen létrehozott EFSF 440 milliárdos hitelezési kapacitását.

Euvonal

EU Nuclear Tests

European Union energy ministers predicted it would take months to start EU-wide nuclear “stress tests” as Germany led a push for stringent common rules and said national leaders must tackle the matter later this week. The energy ministers from the 27-nation EU said checks on the region’s 143 atomic plants following Japan’s nuclear accident would probably get under way in the second half of this year on a voluntary basis. The tests may cover threats from earthquakes, floods, airplane crashes and terrorists as well as reactors’ cooling systems and their age, said EU officials. “I’m not sure that all countries will proceed in as demanding a manner as we have planned in Germany,” German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle, who also handles energy policy, told reporters in Brussels after the emergency EU meeting. He said his support for mandatory European tests failed to win the backing of some participants.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged uniform standards across the EU and said she will raise the issue at a March 24-25 meeting of the bloc’s leaders. She decided last week that Germany will keep its seven oldest nuclear reactors offline as part of the nationwide safety review to run through June. Merkel’s Christian Democratic party dropped votes and the Greens doubled their support yesterday in the first electoral test of Germany’s response to Japan’s accident. The vote in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt was the second of seven German regional ballots this year.

EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said the bloc must come up with a checklist reflecting the concerns of European and national authorities, including in countries that don’t produce atomic energy. Oettinger, Bruederle and Hungarian National Development Minister Tamas Fellegi recommended that non-EU nations bordering the bloc such as Switzerland and Turkey also be involved in the tests.

“We should aim to have this assessment under way before the end of the year,” said Fellegi, who chaired the energy meeting because Hungary holds the EU’s rotating presidency. “We should avoid any hasty decisions.” Bloomberg

Eurozone agrees pact in principle

Sarkozy and Kenny draw swords as eurozone agrees pact in principle

Eurozone leaders meeting in Brussels have agreed on the broad outlines of the document formerly known as the 'Pact for Competitiveness' and subsequently watered down and rebranded a 'Pact for the Euro'. But even as the lines were being firmed up, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny drew swords over corporate taxation levels.
According to EU diplomats describing the heated exchange, as the Irish leader kept pressing for a reduction in the interest rate charged on the country's international loan, his French counterpart at one point reportedly snapped: "So we're supposed to give up millions and you're not even willing to talk about taxes?" Mr Sarkozy wants to see language referring to "distortive taxation rates" in a declaration by EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy following a eurozone summit in the European capital.
Dublin for its part, is looking for a one percent reduction on the 5.8 percent rate that is charged on the EU portion of an €85 billion joint EU-IMF loan. The rate is roughly three points higher than the bloc's borrowing costs, a 'margin' Brussels charges as a punitive measure to dissuade others from requesting a bail-out.But economists and Irish officials say the rate will make reducing Ireland's debt pile in the years to come impossible.
Beyond the scrap between Ireland and France's leaders, another EU diplomat told EUobserver all the leaders are "Pretty much at each others' throats. Once one leader raises one issue, it sparks an attack from another leader on another issue." "11 March was always going to be too early for them to reach any consensus."

Elements of euro pact agreed
A fresh, watered-down version of the proposals, renamed a 'pact for the euro', have now however in principle been agreed. Proposals from commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso and Van Rompuy reworking an earlier Franco-German 'Competitiveness Pact' had contained a laundry list of liberalising demands, including wage restraint across the eurozone; limiting public service spending; constitutional changes limiting government borrowing; raising retirement ages and moving away from labour-based taxation towards consumption-based taxation.
The new euro pact says that a constitutional 'debt brake' is just an example of what can be done; pension adjustments would be optional. 'Adjustment' rather than abolition of wage indexation would now be performed "where necessary".
Earlier demands "to enhance decentralisation in the bargaining process," have since been replaced with slightly more moderate wording that would see reforms to "adjust the wage-setting arrangements, notably the degree of centralisation in the bargaining process."
Leaders have also agreed that there will be a "structured discussion on tax policy" and a common co-ordinated tax base could be among the measures employed to improve the competitiveness of the EU in relation to its leading trade partners.
Countries remain far apart on the flexibility of how EU rescue mechanisms will operate, with no agreement yet on suggestions that both the EFSF and its permanent replacement from 2013, the European Stability Mechanism, be allowed to buy bonds itself as the ECB is currently doing, or let its loans be used for governments to buy debt back on primary or secondary markets, allowing a less disruptive form of restructuring to take place. There is also a proposal that the EFSF and ESM provide credit lines to troubled countries.
There was also no agreement on Friday on an expansion of the effective lending capacity of bail-out funds or on a series of six proposed directives on economic governance first put forward by the European Commission last September.
Non-euro EU states, such as Sweden, Denmark, the UK, and Poland, will be invited to join the pact at the European Council of 24-25 March

Greece wins eurozone concessions, Ireland rebuffed
Greece has won a reduction of 100 basis points - one percent - in the interest rate it pays on its €110 billion loan and an extension of the payment period from the current three and a half years to seven and a half. Ireland was offered a similar reduction, but the country's new prime minister said he could not accept the terms demanded.

In return for Greece's concessions, Athens has committed to a detailed fire-sale privatisation programme worth some €50 billion. A similar 100-basis-point reduction on the rates Ireland pays on its €85 billion loan was also dangled in front of Prime Minister Enda Kenny, but the quid pro quo demanded by core eurozone countries was that Dublin agree to a common tax base for the single-currency area, a move that the taoiseach has described as "tax harmonisation through the back door."

Euobserver

Az EP elfogadta Járóka javaslatát az uniós romastratégiáról

Megszavazta az Európai Parlament a romák európai integrációjának uniós stratégiájáról szóló állásfoglalást. Az elnökség üdvözölte, hogy a jelentés a romák társadalmi felemelkedését állítja középpontba, kiemelt hangsúlyt helyezve a szegregáció háttérbe szorítására.
Az EP várakozásai szerint a dokumentum lesz az alapja annak a keretjogszabálynak, amelyet április elején tesz közzé az Európai Bizottság, és amely a később kidolgozandó nemzeti integrációs programok kerete lesz.
Ahhoz, hogy előrelépést tudjunk tenni, meg kell szabadulnunk a sztereotípiáktól, az általánosításoktól és előítéletektől. Tudatában kell lennünk annak, hogy a romák életfeltételei korántsem egyformák mindenütt” – mondta Balog Zoltán társadalmi felzárkóztatásért felelős államtitkár a március 8-i parlamenti plenáris vitában a Járóka-jelentés kapcsán, melyet nagy többséggel fogadtak el az Európai Parlament képviselői tegnap (2011. március 9.).
A vitában Hannes Swoboda, a Szocialisták és Demokraták Progresszív Szövetsége (S&D) Európai Parlamenti Képviselőcsoportjának alelnöke is üdvözölte a jelentést. „A magyar elnökség biztos lehet abban, hogy ez a magyar elnökség egyik sikere lehet” – mondta, és hozzátette, hogy az S&D frakció visszavonja alternatív indítványát és támogatja a Járóka-jelentést.
A megszavazott parlamenti állásfoglalás javaslatokat fogalmaz meg a jövendő uniós romastratégia szerkezetére. A képviselők zöme a tervezet vitájában úgy vélekedett, hogy nem egyszerűen csak európai keretet kellene adni a tagállamok különböző romaintegrációs stratégiáinak, ahogy a Bizottság elképzeli, hanem egy egységes és önálló, bizonyos elemeiben kötelező erejű stratégiát létrehozni.

Euvonal
Link

Estonians re-elect their government

Prime Minister Andrus Ansip's centre-right coalition may become the first Estonian government since the country's independence in 1991 to serve a second term. According to the preliminary results of the 6 March elections, Mr Ansip's Reform Party won 28.6% of the vote (33 seats) while his coalition partner, Pro Patria/Res Publica Union, received 20.5% of the vote (23 seats). The combined 56 seats would constitute a solid majority in the 101-seat Riigikogu, Estonia's Parliament.

Informal Meeting of EU Defence Ministers

European Union defence ministers welcomed the start of the evacuation of EU citizens from Libya. Although the issue was not originally on their agenda, EU defence ministers discussed it with NATO’s Secretary General, at their informal meeting in Gödöllő, on 25 February 2011, and the EU’s High Representative said that sanctions should be considered against Libya.
Inexpensive but efficient defence
Long-term planning calls for broader cooperation in the EU’s common security and defence policy. The defence ministers discussed this and similar issues. Member states backed the principle of pooling and sharing defence capabilities, which could be an innovative solution to improve efficiency while cutting cost.
The EU has already discussed the issue at several forums, most recently, at an expert conference, which was organised by the Hungarian Presidency in Budapest. Addressing the informal meeting in Gödöllő, Catherine Ashton said the EU will look at ways to fine-tune pooling and sharing, based on member states’ needs.

“The negative effects of the economic crisis, have highlighted the need to use the existing European resources in a more cost-effective, coordinated and organised manner,” Minister of Defence, Csaba Hende, said in an expert seminar, on the current issues of the EU’s capability development on 3 February. Roughly, 150 representatives from 27 member states gathered in the Stefánia Palace in Budapest, to discuss the possibilities of the proposal.

The incidents in the immediate neighbourhood of the EU’s southern states in the past weeks have highlighted the region’s security challenges are not decreasing, but increasing; which makes cooperation more important than ever.
The pooling and sharing of defence capabilities are different types of defence cooperation where military capabilities are developed or maintained together or one country specializes herself in a capability area. The Hungarian Presidency’s goal is to popularise this innovative use of capabilities among member states in this semester. This was a major subject at the informal meeting of defence directors in Budapest, at the end of January 2011, and the Presidency proposed it to be a topic at the Meeting of Defence Ministers in Gödöllő, in late February.
Mr Hende said, “Hungary is in a special situation, as the Presidency must carry out its tasks in the new institutional environment created by the Lisbon Treaty. Therefore Budapest is holding an irregular, “supportive presidency”, carrying out its duties not in competition with the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, and Security but with her guidance.”

After the speech of the Minister for Defence, the most renowned European experts, and researchers of the field, gave presentations in three sections. The morning session revolved around the theoretical background of the pooling and sharing method. The speakers included Hilmar Linnenkamp, former deputy chief executive of the European Defence Agency (EDA), and Jon Mullin, the current capabilities director of EDA.
The speakers agreed that the pooling and sharing method is the main theme of current European defence policy, but Nick Witney, former chief executive of EDA, said, “member states cannot afford to stop developing their military forces due to the economic crisis, and lack of interest. According to the expert, this will inevitably lead to Europe’s loss of significance in global politics.”
http://www.eu2011.hu/news/presidency-aims-more-efficient-organisation-eu-military-capabilities

New Irish government

Irish voters have punished the outgoing Fianna Fail-Green coalition government, handing a strong mandate to the centre-right Fine Gael party. The new government's immediate tasks will include tackling the country's economic mess and securing more favourable terms on a recent international bail-out.
Counting will continue in a number of outstanding constituencies on Monday (28 February), with 154 places in the Ireland's 166-seat parliament filled so far: 70 Fine Gael, 36 Labour, 18 Fianna Fail, 13 Sinn Fein, five United Left Alliance and 12 others.
Fianna Fail, which means "soldiers of destiny" in Irish, has governed Ireland for three of every four years over the past eight decades. But voters in Friday's elections took an axe to the party's standing after it presided over the worst economic crash in the state's history. The Green junior coalition party was completely wiped out, losing all six of the party's seats.
Incoming Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny who is set to become prime minister called the vote a "democratic revolution". His party, which is likely to fall six seats short of an overall majority, is predicted to form a coalition government with the centre-left Labour party, which enjoyed its best ever election results. A combination with Independent MPs is also a possibility.

Independent Senator Shane Ross who topped the poll in the Dublin South constituency said his strong support, the rise of a centre-left party and the collapse of Fianna Fail amounted to an "end of tribal politics in Ireland". Born out of Ireland's 1922-23 civil war, the conservative Fianna Fail and Fine Gael parties have dominated the country's political sphere since that date, reducing the importance of the left-right divide typically seen in other European countries.
The new Irish parliament is set to convene for the first time on 9 March, two days before eurozone leaders meet in Brussels to debate ways to reform the bloc's emergency lending fund.
An overhaul of the club's budgetary rules is also on the agenda, as are plans to boost the economic competitiveness of individual member states. Mr Kenny has indicated he will seek a reduction in Ireland's borrowing rate, together with compulsory "haircuts" on unguaranteed senior bank debt, as part of the overall package.
Germany has been a driving force behind the high interest rate attached to EU loans as a means of dissuading potential borrowers, but economists argue that the punitive rate and Ireland's low growth prospects mean the country's debt pile can only go up in the coming years.
Berlin is expected to request something in return from Dublin if it agrees to improved lending terms. Plans for increased eurozone competitiveness, currently being drafted by the staff of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, contain calls for member states to include a 'debt brake' but no provisions on increasing corporate taxation, reports the Financial Times.Ireland has so far resisted Franco-German calls to increase its 12.5 corporation tax, arguing it is key to the country's economic recovery.
Euobserver