Thursday, February 24, 2011

Some comments re the German-French competitiveness pact

As the first Eurozone Summit of March 11, 2011, is approaching, along with the preparatory meetings of the EPP in Helsinki and the S&D in Athens (both on March 4), much remains unclear about the essence and the format of the German-French competitiveness pact. An article yesterday in the euobserver.com, "Poland backs Franco-German pact, but wants in on talks" raises some of them.

Here are my comment re the pact at this stage:

1) I am not a legal expert but: The 11/3 meeting of the 17 seems to have IGC nature, hence European Commission initiative (aka "Community Method") maybe not a must

2) Not clear to me whether decisions will be implemented via new EU Treaty or via a Schengen type of instrument (ie non-EU, at least at first)

3) A "new EU", inside or outside the existing EU may in effect be in the making, with 17 or more or less members!

4) IMO at this state it is important that all 17 feel that they can have an input to the contents of the beef of the actual pact

5) Maybe even a new Commission type of institution may be estabiished for this new entity of the 17+/-, who knows?

More, this time on essence of the pact:

The elimination of linking of wages to inflation may be done via national laws but many members, including Germany have a long tradition of collective bargaining for wages by social partners at various levels, including the national (eg Greece), national sectoral, national professional, regional sectoral, regional professional, company, etc. How does this affect them?


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