Parliament to stamp mark on the euro

Date: 15/01/1998

By Rory Watson

MEPs this week agreed on a series of moves aimed at boosting the democratic accountability of the euro.

Most crucially, the European Parliament will hold a special one-day session on Saturday 2 May to give its blessing to the member states selected to weld their currencies into the euro eight months later.

The route to the historic meeting was opened this week after the Parliament approved an internal rule change to enable it to vote, without amendments, on a list of countries which Union finance ministers will have approved the previous day.

To many, the institution's recommendation to EU heads of government - who will formally complete the selection procedure a few hours later - is a mere formality.

But Luxembourg Socialist MEP Ben Fayot, who successfully proposed the rule change, insists it will merely be the final stage of a process which will have begun more than a month earlier on 24 March, when both the European Commission and the European Monetary Institute present their convergence reports, revealing which member states have met the entry criteria for the euro, to the Parliament.

The two analyses will be examined by MEPs throughout April and voted on during their Brussels mini-session at the end of the month.

As the single currency draws ever nearer, Euro MPs are also pressing to ensure that their views are taken on board in other areas of the euro project.

Following on from the public hearings which European Commission President Jacques Santer and his colleagues had to attend before taking up their present posts in January 1995, MEPs are preparing to repeat the exercise in May with the nominees for the board of the new European Central Bank (ECB).

While the Maastricht Treaty stipulates that Euro MPs' opinions must be canvassed before EU governments appoint the board members, these views are purely advisory.

However, a report being finalised by German Socialist Christa Randzio-Plath, who chairs the monetary affairs subcommittee, will recommend that future nominations should have to be agreed jointly by the Parliament and the Council of Ministers.

MEPs also tabled proposals this week to make the introduction of the single currency as user-friendly as possible, recommending that information campaigns should take in as many practical aspects of daily life as possible.

Electricity, gas, water and telephone companies are being urged to calculate bills in euro as well as national currencies from the start of the three-year transition period in January 1999.

The same message is directed at public administrations, public lotteries and, with a certain degree of flexibility, at firms with regard to the payment of salaries.

MEPs have agreed on a series of moves aimed at boosting the democratic accountability of the euro.