Ten years of Economic and Monetary Union have been a major success, but improving growth rates is largely up to national governments implementing economic reform, MEPs were told at an Economics Committee hearing on Tuesday. Strengthening the international representation of the eurozone was also a key goal.

All the participants agreed the euro was a success story.  Former German Finance Minister Theo Weigel said this should get more publicity: “Every schoolchild should get a brochure on the success of the euro over the last ten years, explaining the history of its development.” He added that the euro had “withstood the currency test, and the ECB has worked better than the Federal Reserve.”

National reforms the key to growth

Committee chair Pervenche Berès (PES, FR), who is co-rapporteur for Parliament’s forthcoming report on ten years of the Economic and Monetary Union which will draw on the evidence of this hearing, asked about the eurozone’s relatively slow growth rates, Mr Weigel said: “If growth has been modest, it is not the euro’s fault.  It is because there has not been the political will for economic reform.”
 
For Xavier Musca (President of the Council’s Economic and Financial Committee and Director General of the French Treasury and Economic Policy Department), it was hard to see economic policies relating to the labour market, research and innovation being harmonised at EU level.  “What we need is dialogue, monitoring, an alert role for the Commission and for the Eurogroup to incite ministers to work together.”
 
ECB Executive Board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi argued that “clarity on who does what is of the utmost importance.”  If there was divergence in growth rates between Member States, you needed to ask who was responsible: “Member States are in charge of education, product and labour market regulation, taxation, research and development... you should look there for the reasons for the differences.”

The official text was published on the official website of the European.