The
European Union in Construction mode
As the
European Union charts its course in a new international system, a long-term
strategy, simple and ardous has been applied in the external realm towards the
demise of the unipolar system and the installation of a great power democratic
peace, without prejudice to the finalité
politique of The European Union. And so, EU may be conceived internally to
be in both construction mode and wor-king in a compositional mode (www.europeanenergyaffairs.eu).
Surely, EU has always been a construction. As of now, the European Council has
called for wider consultations within four governance domains: financial governance, economic governance,
fiscal governance and political governance. These governance reforms,
recurring apparently now routinely every decade, are undertaken at a moment of
great peril and turbulence in the environment of the EU amidst a debt crisis,
and serve as a focal point and help concentrating minds among both
confederalists and federalists as it requires forceful action at both EU and
Member State-level. These reform efforts are undertaken against the adoption of
the fiscal treaty. As the ECB becomes the elephant in the European shopping
mall, a dynamic disequilibrium is created in need of rebalancing, even as the
spectre of German hegemony looms. And so, a methodology has been adopted
whereby if one pro-posal is unsatisfactory, another can be offered without
attacking reform in the other governance domain. If a second proposal is
preferable, put it into action and good luck to you. This is a multi-national
enterprise in operation. Even so, we are many who would have preferred EU to
act from a position of relative strength through deft and decisive deployment
of its diplomacy, and then to proceed with fortitude on defense integration. It
is then high noon to review what the elements of reform could be in Europe:
Financial governance
§
Single Financial Supervisor 2014
§ ESM & OMT Check
§
Bail-in Mechanism and resolution agency (art. 114). 2014
§
Deposit guarantee fund ( art 114 – regulation).
§ Financial integration-package(Stage III of Fiscal Compact).
Fiscal integration
§
Autonomisation of EU’s financing base ( 2013) Check
§
Directive on harmonisation of tax formulas ( >
pilot project )
Political integration
§
Strengthening of European parties: party Budget line,
streamlining of system of party think-tanks, E-governance module, opt-out for
of national party cadres, only Transposition of Council of Europe-guidelines on
Transparency of party Funding & directive on election law districs.
§
Funding-line on Penelope-like European Social Model.
§
Macroeconomic Dialogue Policy review Check
§ Harmonisation of budget and election cycle (2020).
Economic governance
§
Fiscal Treaty ( Stage I) –ESM-treaty listed
instruments
folded>Convergence Instrument.
§
EU WTO Trade Profile >< Fiscal framework
directive> ?
§
strengthened eu-imf article IV consultations
§
Internal Market: Service directive+ ( stage II). Check
§
Debt management office (DMO), Redemption Fund & European Debt
agency
§
On-sheet Counter-cyclical Fund (2020)
§
Growth Pact CHECK
§ Common Economic policy ( Treaty reform).
>>>
Knowledge > EU & MS Growth Pact &
Strategic Research Funds
Security> ESDP-report (Opex-Ebert-report).
Finance> Merkozy-letter ( TFEU136)
Production: Lisboa2020 EU & MS
Roundtables & ?
