BRUSSELS (MNI) – EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli
Rehn on Monday criticized the UK for pointlessly vetoing EU leaders’
efforts last week to enshrine new fiscal discipline rules in the EU’s
treaty, noting that it has not spared the City of London from EU
financial services regulations.
“I regret very much that the United Kingdom was not willing to join
the new fiscal compact,” Rehn told journalists here. “I regret as much
for the sake of Europe and its crisis response as for the sake of
British citizens and their perspectives.”
“If this move was intended to prevent bankers and financial
corporations of the City from being regulated, that’s not going to
happen,” said Rehn. “We must all draw the lessons from the ongoing
crisis and help to solve it, and this goes for the financial sector as
well.”
“I want also to remind you that the UK government has also
supported and approved the “six pack” and its new rules that tighten up
economic and fiscal surveillance, which enter into force tomorrow,” he
said, referring to new governance rules recently approved by the EU.
“The UK’s excessive deficits and debts as well as its economic
imbalances will be subject to the same surveillance as other EU member
states, even if the enforcement mechanism mainly applies to euro area
member states,” he added.
The EU commissioner also hit out at an idea advanced by UK Prime
Minister David Cameron that the UK’s veto may prevent the institutions
of the EU, such as the European Commission or the European Court of
Justice, from playing a role in the Eurozone’s new “fiscal compact.”
This idea “is simply unfounded,” said Rehn. “The fiscal compact
treaty is, policy wise, bold and effective and legally viable.”
–Brussels bureau: +324-9522-8374; pkoh@marketnews.com
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