Small countries guaranteed use of stability mechanism

Labour MEP Edward Scicluna has welcomed the adoption of Parliament’s report approving a Treaty change to establish the new EU Stability Mechanism which gives specific guarantees that all EU countries, regardless of their size, would be covered by the fund in times of economic crisis.

24 March 2011, 12:00am

1 min read

Following lengthy negotiations with the European Council ahead of tomorrow's Summit of EU leaders where the European Stability Mechanism will be officially agreed prior to parliamentary ratification in all Member States, Prof Scicluna, who was Rapporteur for the Economic committee on the report, together with the other Co-Rapporteurs, persuaded the Council that small countries should not be excluded from accessing the fund because of their size.

Following the parliamentary vote which approved the text by 494 votes with 100 against, Prof Scicluna said:

“I am very pleased with this outcome. After being presented with a text that was legally ambiguous and potentially could have restricted access of small countries to this fund, we have been able to push Council into making some important changes.

“We no longer have to worry that Malta could be put in the position of paying into this fund but without having the right to access it should a crisis arise.”

Noting that the new funding mechanism was only one part of the reform to the euro-areas economic governance, Prof Scicluna stated:

“On its own, this stability mechanism will not solve the euro-area's problems. It is part of a package, along with the six legislative dossiers that I and other leading ECON MEPs are working on.

“If we get into the position that we are making strict demands on countries that fall into economic problems, and then force harsh austerity proposals on them which restrict their ability to grow out of difficulty, we will achieve nothing.”