Why the Eurogroup should ask its president to resign
anche in inglese sul corriere...!!!!!!!!!! con link dalla prima pagina!!!!
di FEDERICO FUBINI
The Eurogroup should consider asking its new president to resign. Never before have euro area finance ministers discussed anything like this, nor have their leaders in the European Council. The only precedent was set by the resignation en masse of the European Commission led by Jacques Santer in 1999. On that occasion, Santer moved to preempt a no-confidence vote in the EU parliament after he failed to manage the fallout from a commissioner’s personal scandal. The issue now at stake is no different - there is a case for facing the problem before it turns from a personal into an institutional and systemic one.
It is not the contradictory way the Eurogroup dealt with the Cyprus programme that would warrant Dijsselbloem’s resignation. This was always going to be an ugly negotiation and several policymakers deserve to share the blame anyway. Dijsselbloem also made some statements that go beyond his remit - not only did he say the Cyprus programme was a “template” for the future, he also suggested that Europe will claim any natural gas proceeds from the East Mediterranean island. But then again, this would not be a sufficient reason for the Eurogroup president to go. Nor is it the mere fact that just about everybody else objected to his “template” statement – the French president, the Spanish prime minister, several leading figures in the ECB and even the German government all begged to differ. (Only Italy has keept virtually silent so far).
The real reason for the Eurogroup to find a new president is of a more fundamental nature. Dijsselbloem’s resignation is the best way, perhaps the only one, to show the world that what he said on Europe's banks is incorrect: Cyprus, with its foreceful haircuts on deposits and capital controls, is no “template”. And the Eurogroup president's resignation is the only way to bring back full confidence in the banks of the euro area “periphery”, as Dijsselbloem himself would call it. In this “periphery”, tens of millions families endure painful efforts in order to stabilize their countries’ economies. It would be unfortunate to frustrate such sacrifices with a sentence uttered for domestic consumption.
(c'e' odore di pastetta tra UE e JD....)
