Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister and leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), the European Parliament's third largest political group, has been particularly outspoken on economic governance issues.
Speaking to EurActiv in a telephone interview yesterday (16 November), Verhofstadt said the parallel summit, to be held in Strasbourg when the Parliament holds its session, would touch upon two issues, likely to be part of the European summit agenda, scheduled for 16-17 December.
The first one, he said, was related to the 'limited treaty changes' sought mainly by Germany, with the objective of creating a permanent system to handle sovereign debt problems. Verhofstadt repeated his thesis that he saw no need for treaty change to introduce the economic governance package.
The second issue, he added, was the need to find a way out of the stand-off between the European Parliament and the UK and the Netherlands over the 2011 EU budget.
EurActiv has learned that the 'Spinelli summit' will gather MEPs who have subscribed to the initiative so far, who reportedly number "over 60".
Verhofstadt noted that unsuccessful negotiations over the 2011 budget held between finance ministers of EU countries and representatives of the Parliament had clearly shown that "a few states" want to keep EU powers for themselves, disregarding the new provisions in the Lisbon Treaty.
Governments against citizens
This, he said, was against the principles of the "founding fathers" of the European project, against the spirit of the Lisbon Treaty and against the interests of EU citizens.
Verhofstadt denounced this "limited number of countries" for refusing even to talk about so-called EU 'own resources', referring to innovative ways to supplement the EU budget by taxing certain activities, such as bank transactions or carbon emissions.
Verhofstadt was also critical of the same countries' push to change the functioning of the so-called reallocation flexibility mechanism, which allows reserve funds to be used up to a maximum of 0.03% of Gross National Income (GNI).
Up to four billion euros could be spent under the reallocation flexibility mechanism. If decisions to use this mechanism are taken in future by consensus, as the UK and the Netherlands are reportedly insisting upon, MEPs warn that it could put at risk several EU projects, such as ITER, an international project to design and build an experimental fusion reactor in France, or commitments to ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries.
A spokesperson for Vehofstadt made clear that the first full-fledged Shadow EU Council would be held next spring, in a format that includes the founding members of the Spinelli Group.
