French European Affairs Minister and Chair of the PES GAC Ministers network Harlem Désir stated: “In light of the four Presidents’ report on the EMU that will be presented in June, our political family has been highlighting the need for true socioeconomic governance in the EMU. The introduction of a strong social union as a concrete EMU pillar which lays down the conditions for effectively sustaining the European Social Model, has been one of our key demands. We have been advocating for the creation of a fair fiscal union that can promote the implementation of progressive fiscal policies that allow for speedy economic recovery, while effectively working towards closing the divergences gap between Member States”.
Harlem Désir continued: “The creation of the Banking Union has marked a decisive step towards guaranteeing economic and financial stability. We in the PES family now want to reinforce it with the Capital Markets Union to strengthen the resilience of the European financial system and improve its responsiveness to serve the credit needs of society. We believe Europe is ready for an alternative vision for the EMU; one that ensures that citizens’ well-being increases, in which the financial system can serve the needs of the real economy, which abides by fair and redistributive fiscal rules, and that abides by democracy and the rule of law”.
Stressing the expected agreement in the Council on the increase of the pre-financing of the Youth Employment Initiative from 1 to 30 %, Harlem Désir stated: “Our political family has pushed hard for the adoption of the Youth Guarantee, and we are strongly committed to its success. We thus welcome the increase of the money immediately available for Member States to implement projects. This is an additional step to accelerate action on the ground and to create opportunities for young people to successfully step into the labour market”.
The meeting was attended by Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lubomir Zaorelek, German Minister for Europe Michael Roth, Italian State Secretary in charge of European Affairs Sandro Gozi, Slovakian State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs Peter Javorcik, Maltese Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg, and PES Deputy Secretary General Yonnec Polet.
