a
what was at stake
b
green position
c
what we achieved
d
what we did not achieve

First economic governance package (Sixpack)

As a consequence of the sovereign debt crisis, European member states decided to amend the Maastricht criteria with six pieces of secondary legislation.

The package consists of rules on better surveillance of national budgets and how to enforce it, rules on better surveillance of economic imbalances and how to enforce it, rules for better comparability of national budgets, and rules for faster and clearer excessive debt procedures.

Like this, member states hoped, market confidence in European states' bonds could be strengthened.

 

What was the Greens' position?

The Greens believe the EU should reduce unemployment in the deficit countries and make salary increases possible in the surplus countries.

This requires true coordination of economic policies. We argue that the Maastricht criteria were highly uneffective tools to foresee and handle the euro crisis.

The Commission's legislative proposals are no remedy to this deficit and parts of the package rather extend the austerity policy, which member states have practiced on an intergovernmental basis.

Other parts of the package improve economic surveillance, increase inclusion of social partners and make tentative steps to European coordination of national budgets.

 

Did other MEPs accept the Greens' position?

The Greens succeeded to introduce important backstops in the legislation on the correction of economic imbalances.

We insisted that the measures under this legislation do not interfere with the fundamental rights and respect national collective agreements.

National Parliaments will have a stronger say, controlling their governments better.

Negative economic spill-over will be taken into account as a factor in recommendations the Council will make to member states.

We also managed to soften some elements of the legislation on reducing member states' debt, by introducing an amendment to take economic cycles into account.

 

Which points did the Greens lose?

The Greens were not able to alter the overall tendency of three texts in the package.

The EPP and ALDE deputies responsible for coordinating these texts had the support of their groups to demand stronger austerity, despite the economic downturn in many member states.

Reference(s)
Press & Events
Committee:ECON

Procedures: Ordinary legislative procedure (mostly)

Reference(s):2010/0280(COD), 2010/0276(CNS), 2010/0278(COD), 2010/0279(COD), 2010/0281(COD), 2010/0277(NLE)

Lead MEP:Corien Wortmann-Cool (EPP), Diogo Feio (EPP), Sylvie Goulard (ALDE), Elisa Ferreira (S&D), Carl Haglund (ALDE), Vicky Ford (ECR)

Green MEP responsible:Sven Giegold, Philippe Lamberts

Voted:28.09.2011

Staff contact:Francisco Padilla (Email)

Outcome of the vote
Below you find the results of the final vote in plenary. How did the political groups vote? What about national delegations? And what was the position of your MEP?

Surveillance of budgetary positions and surveillance and coordination of economic policies

Budgetary surveillance in euro area

Enforcement measures to correct excessive macroeconomic imbalances in euro area

Prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances

Implementation of excessive deficit procedure

Requirements for budgetary frameworks of Member States