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Scicluna to lead S & D group on eurobonds

Labour MEP Prof Edward Scicluna has been appointed as the Socialist and Democrat group spokesman on eurobonds. Prof Scicluna negotiated the Parliament’s first proposal for eurobonds with Liberal MEP Sylvie Goulard during the economic governance ‘six pack’. They will now tackle the Commission Green Paper on “Options for Stability Bonds” which is widely expected to lead to legislation in 2012.

Prof Scicluna said:

“Six months ago Eurobonds were a minority pursuit. It was difficulty finding a majority in Parliament and even then the Council dismissed it.

“By themselves Eurobonds are not the answer to the eurozone crisis, but they can be part of the solution. The most important challenge will be to include an element of joint liability among all eurozone member states and a watertight solution to the moral hazard issue.”

The future role of eurobonds and the wider debt crisis was also a theme in Thursday’s key-note debate in Parliament with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.

Speaking in plenary Prof Scicluna told MEPs that:

“We are on the brink of an economic catastrophe largely because of calculated brinkmanship by the Member States who early on in the year made such words as Eurobonds, and voluntary hair-cuts taboo hoping that the six-pack would provide a silver bullet.

He concluded:

“We are in danger of going down in history as the political class who presided over the collapse of the euro and a global Depression.”

Last week Prof Scicluna also chaired the Jean Monnet Conference on ‘European Economic Governance’ which was addressed by Nobel Prize winner Prof Robert Mundell father of the theory of optimum currency areas.