On the margins of a conference organised by the European Economic and Social Committee on 7 June, the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, Staffan Nilsson, stresses the need for a Fiscal Stability Union in Europe, backed by Eurobonds, in order to overcome the crisis and ensure investment for the future development of the European Union.
Europe must answer the question of whether Eurobonds are a starting point or an end point for deeper fiscal integration. The huge fiscal consolidation efforts in many Member States will only be sustainable if they directly result in lower interest rates on public debt. Eurobonds are therefore an essential element in an architecture that needs to guarantee fiscal discipline by individual Member States while shielding them from excessive spreads on sovereign debt. To get there, we need concrete initiatives aimed both at providing forms of shared responsibility between Member States for public debt within the Union and also at boosting investment in Europe.
We need a Europe of EU-wide projects for investment, growth, competitiveness and jobs. We need a Europe of true solidarity and respect for all citizens. We need a global Europe, not polarisation between North and South. We need a Europe of democracy, both representative and participatory. We need deeper European integration, in which responsibilities are shared, risks are mutualised and resources are jointly leveraged to create a growth model which is credible, coherent and sustainable.
Europe has always managed to move forward at times of crisis: let us seize this opportunity, so that the European Union emerges from this crisis with new strengths.