The EU’s new 'Europe 2020' strategy for green growth and jobs is doomed to fail if it continues to be based on the intergovernmental approach used by its predecessor, the Lisbon Agenda, warned Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the liberal group in the European Parliament.
Speaking at a conference organised by the European Policy Centre think-tank on Thursday (3 June), Verhofstadt warned that the European Parliament could block parts of the Union’s new ten-year economic strategy if the intergovernmental approach was to prevail.
"The Parliament is working on a common statement of all political groups on this. And we are discussing the idea that if the Council simply copies the previous governance of the old strategy, we shall start to block a number of texts," Verhofstadt said, answering a question from EurActiv.
The liberal leader strongly advocated for a "Community" approach to implementing the strategy, as well as for implementing EU policies in a broader context.
Although the EU assembly has no decision powers over the strategy as such, it could block its financing or some of its seven "flagship initiatives," Parliament sources explained.
The Socialist & Democrats group, the second largest in the EU assembly, appeared to be in tune with Verhofstadt, while the Greens/EFA group concurred with him only partially, EurActiv found out (see 'Positions').
Since the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, Verhofstadt said a "big fight" had been taking place between those advocating an intergovernmental approach to EU affairs, based on bilateral diplomacy between sovereign sates, and the so-called 'Community method', where supranational EU institutions like the European Commission and the European Parliament take centre stage.
He added that only the 'Community method' was capable of producing genuine solutions to the current economic crisis by triggering more European integration.
"The Lisbon Strategy, started in 2000, was based on intergovernmental cooperation. The intergovernmental method, based on best practices and peer review, is the complete failure of this strategy," he said.
"If we continue like that, we shall talk again in ten years about Europe 2030, but we shall also see the failure of the 'Europe 2020' strategy if we continue with this loose intergovernmental approach," he added.
Targets are not the problem
Verhofstadt said the Lisbon strategy had failed not because of a lack of targets, which he said were numerous - numbering more than 30 - but rather because EU member states kept adding more during meetings.
"One of the lessons from the previous strategy was to reduce those targets to five. I think that was a good decision. But the main problem is not targets – it is the governance of the strategy. That was the open coordination method, invented in 2000 by those who did not want a real economic union, and didn't want a real economic strategy in Europe," said Verhofstadt, who was Belgium's prime minister at the time.
Criticising European leaders from that period, he said that they invented "a lot of beautiful words – open coordination method, peer review, best practices," but despite all the rhetoric they ended up "printing documents" comparing the results of different member states.
"From my experience as prime minister, I know that this does not create any pressure. If you have bad results, then you have a bad day in parliament, but that's all. I can tell you that a negative IMF report on your country creates more pressure. Even a report from an independent organisation creates more pressure than all these documents published inside the Lisbon Strategy," Verhofstadt said.
He also slammed the Spanish EU Presidency for scaling down its ambitions on 'Europe 2020'.
"There were some bold proposals in the beginning of the presidency, in January. But when I see the proposals that are now on the table, my fear is that we shall have a Europe 2020 strategy that is more or less a copy of the previous one."
Verhofstadt advocated adding "sticks and carrots" to the 'Europe 2020' plan and lashed out at EU member states for being entangled in contradictory positions.
"On the one hand, they say: we need bolder action; we need sanctions against those countries that are not fulfilling the Stability Pact. But when it comes to economics, or economic reforms, or the Europe 2020 strategy, they say, it's not possible, it's the member states that are in the driver's seat. It's simply not consistent," he claimed.
Greek crisis handling under fire
Verhofstadt criticised EU leaders for their handling of the Greek crisis, saying that they had wasted "five months of struggle".
Three months were spent agreeing a mechanism based on bilateral loans, then two further months for the conditions attached to it, he said. And because it still did not work, he said a few more weeks were again needed for an agreement on the 750 billion euro fund.
"And there are still uncertainties as to who shall manage this and what the conditions shall be to use money from the fund," he said.
"What the financial markets are testing is not the capability of the Greek government to realise a number of savings, but the capability of the Union to create real economic governance," Verhofstadt warned.
