Leaders: Open up EU for jobs
DAVID Cameron and 11 other European Prime Ministers have called on the EU to be more honest about the cost of its regulations, end implicit state guarantees that banks will not be allowed to fail, and open up the services sector to increased competition across the 27 members.
In a letter sent to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council boss Herman Van Rompuy yesterday, the leaders – including Spain’s PM Mariano Rajoy and Italy’s Mario Monti, but not France or Germany – argued that the EU must address major structural problems if its economies are to grow and create jobs.
The current “crisis of growth” must be addressed with strong pro-market policies to free up labour, services and international trade, the leaders said, to “recover Europe’s dynamism” and “put our economies back on the path to economic recovery”.
The Union needs “ambitious targets” to “reduce the burden on EU regulation”, and should “publish an annual statement identifying and explaining the total net cost to business of regulatory proposals issued in the preceding year”, the letter said.
Echoing the action being taken in Italy, the leaders called for urgent action “remove the restrictions that hinder access and competition” in the services sector, furthering the single market and boosting GDP.
The same must be true of the digital economy, the letter said, which is expanding rapidly within countries but is stifled across borders because of “a complex web of differing copyright regimes.”
Expanding free trade agreements would further this agenda, they argue – concluding just the deals currently being negotiated, with countries like Japan, China and Canada could be worth €90bn (£75.2bn) to the EU’s GDP.
The letter also argued that banks should take responsibility for the loans they make, rather than relying on state support if they fail, and that Basel III rules will help ensure the stability of the financial system.
Crucially for Britain, the letter made no mention of the proposed financial transactions tax, which the European Commission favours implementing across the EU but Cameron opposes on the grounds it will damage the UK’s financial services sector and simply drive banks to other global financial centres.