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  • Andrey Kovatchev, MEP, head of the Bulgarian delegation in E...

Andrey Kovatchev, MEP, head of the Bulgarian delegation in EPP and Vice-Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the EP: The states outside the Eurozone should be at the table, The aim of the fiscal pact is clear, but the devil is in the details

Интервю 01.02.2012г.
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Maria Koleva, Brus­sels28 January, 2012 Close-up:

Andrey Kov­at­chev is a Mem­ber of the Euro­pe­an Par­lia­ment, head of the Bul­gar­i­an del­e­ga­tion in EPP, mem­ber of GERB. Since one week, Vice-chair of the Com­mit­tee on for­eign affairs. Mem­ber of the Sub­com­mit­tee on secu­ri­ty and defence, and the EP Del­e­ga­tion for rela­tions with the Unit­ed States. Since March 2011, Vice-pres­i­dent of the Union of Euro­pe­an Fed­er­al­ists. Degree in Biol­o­gy from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Saar­land, Ger­ma­ny, Doc­tor of Nat­u­ral Sci­en­ces from the same uni­ver­si­ty. Area com­mer­cial man­a­ger for CIS for US com­pa­ny John Dee­re Inter­na­tion­al. Flu­ent in Eng­lish, Ger­man, French, Rus­sian and Span­ish.


What is impor­tant is that Europe as a con­ti­nent be going towards a more unit­ed pol­i­cy and a sin­gle voice in the world, from eco­nom­ic and fis­cal to for­eign pol­i­cy.The speed at which mem­ber states will go depends large­ly on them­selves. In a glo­bal­iz­ing world it will be hard for small and medi­um-sized Euro­pe­an states to sur­vive, it will be hard even for the big ones, unless Euro­pe­an inte­gra­tion is deep­ened.


- Mr. Kov­at­chev, is Europe ade­quate­ly meet­ing the chal­lenge of the cri­sis with the fis­cal pact in prep­a­ra­tion?

- We can not say yet, because we have not seen the final ver­sion of the pact, but evi­dent­ly this is the way. The aim is to guar­an­tee, on the one hand, that the Mem­ber States shall not ignore essen­tial rules such as the rule of not spend­ing more than you earn. And also let some polit­i­cal par­ties, which won the elec­tions, not be delud­ed and under­take more com­mit­ments than the state budg­et can afford. For instance, the exter­nal gov­ern­ment debt of any Mem­ber State should not exceed 60% of GDP. It has all been said many times. It's noth­ing new or ground­break­ing that will be laid down in this inter­gov­ern­men­tal fis­cal pact. But as we see, it is very hard to find con­sen­sus among all mem­bers of the pact, exclud­ing Great Bri­tain. The dev­il is in the details. Of course, it is crit­i­cal­ly impor­tant wheth­er with this step the EU will restore the con­fi­dence of the mar­kets, as well as the Euro­pe­an cit­i­zens and the cit­i­zens of the great world pow­ers, who would recog­nize the EU as a major play­er on the glob­al scene that is trust­wor­thy. They should be con­fi­dent that Europe is a con­ti­nent with a future, rath­er than an mar­gi­nal­iz­ing con­ti­nent - from a dem­o­graph­ic point of view, from the impos­si­bil­i­ty to take deci­sions because it is hard for it to find com­mon pol­i­cy. We, on the con­tra­ry, want to prove that we are unit­ed and can unite around com­mon pol­i­cies. Now this is a com­mon fis­cal and budg­et pol­i­cy, sub­or­di­nat­ed to basic rules. These rules should not just be talk­ed about but be observed too. For those states, which do not com­ply, should be pro­vid­ed sanc­tions. The cit­i­zens of Bul­gar­ia, being a coun­try which observes these rules, are deprived in the short-term from the oppor­tu­ni­ty to receive more social ben­e­fits, so that in the log-term we could recov­er our econ­o­my and reg­is­ter growth. With the belt-tight­en­ing at the moment we are invest­ing in our future and in the future of the com­ing gen­er­a­tions. I think this will repay soon, but of course we insist there must be a mech­a­nism of incen­tives for the states that strict­ly observe these finan­cial and budg­et rules, and con­verse­ly, sanc­tions for the states that do not. This I hope will be laid down in the new fis­cal pact and gain the con­fi­dence of the two major groups - mar­kets and cit­i­zens. Wheth­er Europe has a response to the cri­sis depends on how con­vin­cing are the Euro­pe­an lead­ers, who take the deci­sions, and how well they will com­mu­ni­cate this deci­sion to the mar­kets and cit­i­zens, so they can trust this step. In world econ­o­my, suc­cess and fail­ure are main­ly built on psy­chol­o­gy and trust.

- What would be the advan­ta­ges from tak­ing part in the pact for coun­tries out­side the Euro­zone?

- I am sure that we must by no means divide Europe into two or three speeds, into fed­er­al core and periph­ery, into the diverse ideas and sce­nar­i­os that came in cir­cu­la­tion last year. On the con­tra­ry, we must stay unit­ed, so that coun­tries in or out­side the Euro­zone, should all take part in this fis­cal pact. What is vital is to final­ize the pact, as it is designed, and all EU mem­ber states, except Great Bri­tain, to be part of this pact. The coun­tries out­side the Euro­zone should at the table, par­tic­i­pate in all for­mats, where deci­sions are made and be informed, of course ini­tial­ly as observ­ers, until they join the Euro­zone. They should under­take the com­mit­ments to observe the rules. Europe in two, three speeds should be over­come. The speed at which mem­ber states will go depends large­ly on them­selves too. If they want to be slow­er, no one can make them go fast­er. If Great Bri­tain does not wish to go along now, we have Europe at two speeds. But it is Bri­tain's own deci­sion. These are sov­er­eign states, which decide what to do. Wheth­er there will be more polit­i­cal, fis­cal, eco­nom­ic inte­gra­tion and lat­er on, why not social too, it is up to the states. Of course, I think there is no oth­er alter­na­tive. In a glo­bal­iz­ing world I don't know how small and medi­um-sized Euro­pe­an states will sur­vive, it will be hard even for the big ones, unless Euro­pe­an inte­gra­tion is deep­ened. What is impor­tant is that Europe as a con­ti­nent be going towards a more unit­ed pol­i­cy and a sin­gle voice in the world, from eco­nom­ic and fis­cal to for­eign pol­i­cy.

- Isn't the Euro­pe­an Par­lia­ment left a bit aside from tak­ing impor­tant deci­sions on the pact?

- This is the con­cern of many of my col­leagues and we oppose strong­ly the Euro­pe­an Par­lia­ment to be cir­cum­vent­ed and the mem­ber states by the so-called inter­gov­ern­men­tal approach, to take deci­sions out­side the com­mon insti­tu­tions, out­side the EP. We insist Par­lia­ment to take active part in tak­ing the deci­sion and also to be at the table when all fur­ther pol­i­cies are dis­cussed. When this com­mon eco­nom­ic gov­ern­ance of EU is dis­cussed we want the EP Pres­i­dent to be invit­ed as a per­ma­nent part of this gov­ern­ment. Our stand is that we need strong com­mu­ni­ty insti­tu­tions. For us, the com­mu­ni­ty meth­od has to be lead­ing in the EU. The Euro­pe­an visions and idea, ever since the dec­la­ra­tion of Schu­man and Mon­net, is a qual­i­ta­tive­ly dif­fer­ent phase of inte­gra­tion which is not inter­gov­ern­men­tal or inter­state, but supra­na­tion­al, with strong com­mu­ni­ty insti­tu­tions as the Euro­pe­an Com­mis­sion and the Euro­pe­an Par­lia­ment.

- There is much talk about the role of for­eign cred­it rat­ing agen­cies. Do you think they are the prin­ci­pal cause for the dis­trust of finan­cial mar­kets?

- We could go into lengthy spec­u­la­tions and phi­los­o­phiz­ing wheth­er it was their fault and if they were the only ones to blames. I don't think only US rat­ing agen­cies are to be blamed for the cri­sis, although there is a con­spir­a­cy trend who believe that in the US or the US-based rat­ing agen­cies, want to weak­en the EU so that the Unit­ed States would pick up great­er momen­tum. The pro­ce­dure for estab­lish­ment of a Euro­pe­an cred­it agen­cy has been launched. It comes down to trust, will any­one trust this agen­cy. Such agen­cies take years to get well estab­lished. But these rat­ing agen­cies should go out of ano­nym­i­ty. We know their names but we don't know who are the peo­ple behind them, who pays for these rat­ings and by what meth­od­ol­o­gy they are done. The pub­lic is the dark about it. The EU wants clear rules for these agen­cies and for them to go out of ano­nym­i­ty. I think in the long-term it would be good for Europe to have a Euro­pe­an rat­ing agen­cy based in the EU.

- In your capac­i­ty of a new­ly elect­ed Vice-chair of the Com­mit­tee on For­eign Pol­i­cy what will, in your opin­ion, dom­i­nate EU for­eign-pol­i­cy activ­i­ties in 2012?

- EU is fur­ther seek­ing to have a strong voice across the world. Yes­ter­day Bill Gates asked in EP wheth­er Europe would remain just a big devel­op­ment and human­i­tar­ian aid donor or would evolve to become a major glob­al play­er with a com­mon for­eign and secu­ri­ty pol­i­cy, which to be respect­ed by the rest of the great world pow­ers and the small­er ones involved in dif­fer­ent con­flicts. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, it is not the case for the time being. Often it is more impor­tant what the stand of an indi­vid­u­al coun­try is - of Ger­ma­ny or France or Spain or the UK - rath­er than that of, say, Cath­er­ine Ash­ton. This is so because there is no com­mon stand or con­fi­dence in Euro­pe­an com­mon pol­i­cy. What remains a major tar­get of the Com­mit­tee on For­eign Affairs of the EU is to fur­ther devel­op a strong Euro­pe­an for­eign pol­i­cy. Par­tic­u­lar­ly, it means EU enlarge­ment in the West­ern Bal­kans. In this respect a debate with the Euro­pe­an cit­i­zens is in store for us to try to per­suade them that the enlarge­ment must go on. You are aware of the fact that many EU cit­i­zens, espe­cial­ly of the old Mem­ber States expe­ri­ence an 'en­large­ment fatigue', reluc­tance towards fur­ther EU enlarge­ment. Still, we have made a com­mit­ment to the West­ern-Bal­kan coun­tries that soon­er or lat­er they will join the EU. Such an acces­sion would be ben­e­fi­cial for all the Euro­pe­an nations, as we can­not have a blind spot in the Bal­kans gen­er­at­ing just inse­cu­ri­ty and con­flicts. The East­ern Part­ner­ship is yet anoth­er par­tic­u­lar area. We have to go on with the new Asso­ci­a­tion Agree­ments with these coun­tries, which are cur­rent­ly being pre­pared. I am the EPP rap­port­eur on the EU's Asso­ci­a­tion Agree­ment with Ukraine, includ­ing Deep and Com­pre­hen­sive Free Trade Agree­ment. The third par­tic­u­lar area is that of North Afri­ca and the chan­ges in the Arab world. EU ought to care­ful­ly try to moti­vate and sup­port the dem­o­crat­ic proc­ess­es - which should be, of course, in accord­ance with the aspi­ra­tions of the cit­i­zens of these coun­tries - and ensure respect for the basic human rights. We hope very much that what start­ed last year, as an Arab Spring would not end up as a mere Islam­ic-ori­ent­ed soci­e­ty. They will have to go a long way. We are aware that the Euro­pe­an dem­o­crat­ic mod­el could not be exact­ly rep­li­cat­ed to func­tion in the same mode else­where. On the oth­er hand, we can allow of no com­pro­mise with the basic human rights.

- Is the idea of cre­at­ing com­mon EU mil­i­tary capa­bil­i­ty devel­oped fur­ther?

- The idea of Europe uni­fy­ing its mil­i­tary capac­i­ties in the area of defence becomes ever more pop­u­lar and is devel­oped pos­i­tive­ly, espe­cial­ly when it comes to a peri­od of finan­cial and eco­nom­ic cri­sis, when nation­al gov­ern­ments and their finance min­is­ters exert pres­sure on min­is­ters of defence to cur­tail mil­i­tary expend­i­ture. It would be only log­i­cal and effi­cient for us in Europe to unite these capac­i­ties of ours in the area of defence and secu­ri­ty and to build sin­gle mil­i­tary struc­tures. The lat­est devel­op­ments, of a few days ago, include a draft res­o­lu­tion on estab­lish­ing of pro­vi­sion­al EU oper­a­tion­al mil­i­tary head­quar­ters. Hope­ful­ly, it could lat­er become per­ma­nent EU HQ, which would in no way dupli­cate NATO struc­tures. NATO and US are expect­ing of Europe more com­mit­ments. For the US gov­ern­ment finds it hard to explain to its cit­i­zens as to why their sold­ers have to take care of Europe's secu­ri­ty, as has been the case in the wake of WWII. The US com­mit­ment remains firm; still it expects Europe to take active part in its own defence, as well as in peace­keep­ing mis­sions such as those of the recent years in Afri­ca, Mid­dle East and the Bal­kans. There is anther project, Pool­ing and Shar­ing. Some 300 pro­jects have been sub­mit­ted to the Euro­pe­an Defence Agen­cy being now con­sid­ered for financ­ing. Some of these pro­jects deal with, for exam­ple, acqui­si­tion of mil­i­tary equip­ment: sev­er­al coun­tries coop­er­ate to acquire hel­i­cop­ters and use these joint­ly. There is also a pro­pos­al for amend­ments in the finan­cial mech­a­nism of the EU bat­tle groups and mil­i­tary mis­sions expend­i­tures as a whole. Europe has sev­er­al bat­tle groups with two of them 1,500-strong on stand­by rotat­ing every 6 months. They are ready to go on mis­sions in any hot spot of the world. These groups have nev­er been used, most­ly for finan­cial rea­sons. Until now these were sup­port­ed by the respec­tive coun­tries on stand­by. Cath­er­ine Ash­ton pro­posed they to be financed joint­ly by all the Mem­ber States and the budg­et of the CFSP, to increase the oppor­tu­ni­ties to use them if need be.

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andrey.kovatchev@ep.europa.eu

Андрей Ковачев - член на Европейския парламент Website by