There is a need for a real economic and monetary union in the European Union that should be based on four pillars, the banking union, the fiscal union, the economic union and the political union, Deputy Minister to the President for European Affairs Andreas Mavroyiannis has said.
Mavroyiannis also said that this four pillar Union should be based on democratic legality and accountability.
In his address to the 48th Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC) that took place in Nicosia, Mavroyiannis said that the goal of the Cyprus Presidency is to keep the strict time schedule set by the European Council for reaching an agreement on the Single Monitoring Mechanism by the end of 2012, as well as to ensure the quality of legislation, because the issues are complex and very important.
Mavroyiannis reassured that the Cyprus Presidency will work hard aiming at the adoption of the 2013 EU budget on time, taking under consideration the need for balance between fiscal consolidation and the appropriate distribution of resources on policies that contribute to growth and employment.
The Deputy Minister also said that despite the uncertainties deriving from the current economic crisis, one thing is now clearer than ever: Europe can proceed only if its citizens are involved”.
He also pointed out that the enhanced role of national parliaments in the EU, as it stands after Lisbon Treaty, involves an enhanced inter-parliamentary cooperation, which allows regular exchange of information, best practices and views on EU issues between the Committees on European Affairs. As Presidency, he added, we welcome and encourage this inter-parliamentary cooperation.
COSAC has an important role to play as a field of views exchange on issues of policy, he added, and stressed that “it is necessary, in the ongoing discussions on the integration of the Economic and Monetary Union, to ensure the close involvement of both the European Parliament and national parliaments, under the Community method”.
Referring to the goals of the Cyprus Presidency and providing a brief review of the first three months of the Presidency, Mavroyiannis referred to the Multiannual Financial Framework, noting that the target is to reach an agreement for the a budget, which will support growth, employment, competitiveness and convergence, in conjunction with the strategy Europe 2020, as it was demanded by the European Council in June.
He assured that the actions taken by the Cyprus Presidency towards this direction are intensive. He also said that the Cyprus Presidency circulated in September a revised negotiating framework, which has already been discussed in the General Affairs Council.
He added that the Presidency will release a new revised negotiating framework on the MFF by the end of October, ahead of the Extraordinary European Council on the 22-23 November 2012.
Mavroyiannis underscored that an important priority of the Cyprus Presidency is the essential progress on the legislative proposals contained in the Single Market Act. He said that Europe should take urgent measures to improve living conditions and increase employment, and for that reason the European Commission during the commemoration of 20 years of the Single Market Act, proposed a series of measures aimed at boosting the European economy and create jobs.
