The European Parliament’s four largest political groups have warned European Union leaders ahead of the European Council in Brussels on Thursday (17 June) that the only way out of the current eurozone crisis is through more integration at the European level.

The leaders of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the centre-left Socialist and Democrats (S&D), the liberal Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) and the Greens are calling for a stronger role for European Union institutions in economic management. The four group leaders took the unusual step of holding a joint press conference in Strasbourg this morning to protest at the EU institutions being marginalised in the recent response to the eurozone crisis.

Sidelined institutions

“There is only one useful level of decision-making and that is the European level,” said Joseph Daul, the leader of the EPP group. He said that under the Lisbon treaty, “things had changed”, but said that member states were still willing to put together piece-meal deals that sidelined both the Parliament and the European Commission.

Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the ALDE group, said that member states had to realise that the only way to ensure the success of new economic governance rules to stabilise the euro and ensuring full implementation of the Europe 2020 jobs and growth programme was by putting EU institutions in charge. The same, he said, was the case for the setting up of the new European External Action Service (EEAS).

“We intend to wage that battle, to fight for that,” Verhofstadt said, hinting that MEPs could hold up agreement on a number of policy proposals to make their point.

Backdoor deals

Martin Schulz, the leader of the S&D group, said that the Parliamentary groups had set aside political differences to “send a very strong signal” that a majority of MEPs were tired of backdoor deals stitched together by France and Germany in the European Council that excluded the Commission and Parliament.

In two resolutions expected to be adopted tomorrow (16 June), MEPs slammed member states for drafting a lacklustre jobs and growth programme that is supposed to help the 27-nation bloc return to growth. They urged member states “to define a truly far-sighted, ambitious and coherent strategy” and back it up with more cash for the EU budget.

Lack of ambition

One of the resolutions says that the Europe 2020’s five ‘headline targets’ – to reduce unemployment, cut greenhouse gas emissions,  boost research and development, boost education levels and reduce poverty – lacked ambition or binding rules. MEPs say there should be a ‘carrot and stick’ approach to force member states to meet the goals.

On overhauling the EU’s economic governance rules, the groups demanded a greater say over how member states plan to run a €500 billion European financial stabilisation mechanism, which includes a €60bn loan facility that will be run by the Commission and guaranteed by the EU budget.

Rebecca Harms, co-leader of the Greens, said that national governments also had to move faster on getting an EU agreement to set up a Europe-wide financial transactions tax. “One needs to finally take a decision,” Harms said.