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EU lawmakers have been beavering away at six legislative proposals that make up the bloc's economic governance package, designed to eliminate the possibility of another sovereign debt crisis like that of recent months, which has weakened the euro.
However, lawmakers face two major problems: agreeing on the substance of the proposals and forging some common ground before 20 June, when a final decision is expected.
The Hungarian Presidency, whose tenure runs out at the end of June, and the European Commission have been putting pressure on the several hundred lawmakers involved to secure an agreement in just six months.
The package is twice as voluminous, and arguably as contentious, as the financial supervision package which took a year to negotiate and approve.
Power play
Divisions boil down to who should hold decision-making power when it comes to policing public debt.
The European Parliament, which co-legislates with the Commission and member states on the package, wants Brussels to have more say on what countries should do to reduce debts, while the bloc's finance ministries would prefer to leave some matters to their discretion.
A key MEP in the talks, Corien Wortmann-Kool (European People's Party; Netherlands), wants to write new rules on how the Commission vets countries' budgetary planning – the so-called European Semester – into EU legislation.
However, most countries would prefer to have a less binding arrangement than an EU law which could theoretically be used against them in court if they do not follow EU advice to the letter.
In addition, the Parliament wants the right to invite the finance ministers of countries with excessive debts to a hearing, a suggestion which has little support from national governments.
The Hungarian Presidency has suggested that the leader of the country holding the presidency at the time, or the president of the Commission or the Eurogroup, currently chaired by Jean-Claude Juncker, could appear at a parliamentary hearing instead.
But most doubt EU member states will want to relinquish even that bit of national sovereignty. "Name one country that would rather be represented by somebody else," a parliamentary source scoffed. "Just imagine a German Presidency talking on behalf of Greece."
The European Parliament insists the hearings are not a way to garner more power but rather a means of ensuring transparency, while national exchequers feel threatened by the very suggestion that they would have to confront MEPs about their budgetary decisions.
According to the Parliament's amendments to the package, the European Commission should be able to declare an emergency if it sees a pending crisis. This too curries little favour with the bloc's national governments.
To add to these divisions, lawmakers also disagree on the drafting and updating of economic indicators and how to make national statistical bodies more independent.
Monday (6 June) kicks off a record round of five meetings in one week, which will see MEPs and colleagues from the Hungarian Presidency, the European Commission and member states locked up in a room for hours at a time to patch up political differences.
Claire Davenport
