MEPs at the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee agreed that the proposed new legislation to strengthen budgetary oversight of Eurozone countries should allow as much economic governance as possible to take place within the normal EU system, rather than outside it through international agreements.

The discussion held among MEPs at the European Parliament Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee has a unanimously conclusion: the proposed new legislation to strengthen budgetary oversight of Eurozone countries should allow as much economic governance as possible to take place within the normal EU system. In addition, many MEPs highlighted at the debate that there is a risk that the legislation could undermine the democratic legitimacy of budgetary policy if the Commission were not made more accountable.

The other weakness highlighted by various MEPs was that the proposed legislation was too closely focused on austerity, and not sufficiently on growth. Elisa Ferreira, MEP, warned that this proposed legislation and the international treaty risk reducing the focus of the six pack, which was adopted by the Council in November 2011, to one only based on imposing austerity. Furthermore, various other MEPs aired the idea of cutting EU structural funds to excessive deficit countries, but without reaching a verdict on whether this might do more harm than good.

This discussion comes as the working group tasked with preparing a first draft of an international agreement to strengthen economic governance in the EU starts work. The MEPs, Elmar Brok, Roberto Gualtieri and Guy Verhofstadt, are members of the working group which have already stated that the new treaty must be fully compatible with the existing Treaty and with existing EU law.