Northern Eurozone Members Need to be Honest on Greece

Adelina Marini, June 25, 2015

The latest crisis with Greece will end as always – the next expensive loan will be lent until the next crunch, thinks Syed Kamall, leader of the third largest group in the European Parliament – the European Conservatives and Reformists. In an interview for euinside he stated that the solution was for the northern Eurozone members to be honest to their taxpayers and tell them that they will have to pay for the poorer countries by fiscal transfers, maybe forever. He was convinced that “Until they are honest with their taxpayers, we’re not going to find a solution”.

On the subject of the situation with Britain Dr Kamall explained, that tonight, in the first day of the leaders’ summit in Brussels, Prime Minister David Cameron will only present the “four baskets” of Great Britain. These are social benefits tourism, the question of “an ever closer union”, relationships between members and non-members of the Eurozone, and how could the EU become more competitive. According to the British Conservative MEP, Mr Cameron will make something like a presentation, trying to present Britain’s ideas to the leaders he had not yet had bilateral meetings with. The main purpose of the presentation is to make it clear that the United Kingdom is not offering a shopping list, but meaningful reforms to benefit the whole Union.

The MEP claims Great Britain already has a lot of allies in other countries that support the ideas for reforms. When asked how he thinks Cameron’s announcements are going to be met by the leaders in view of Greece’s never ending drama Dr Kamall was convinced there would be no debates. They will be led either in future summits, or future bilateral meetings. According to him, these are two completely different subjects. On the topic of migration, that is expected to raise serious arguments today, Syed Kamall recommended that finger-pointing should stop. He believes that when the EC presented its proposition on migration suddenly all solidarity disappeared and countries started blaming each other and finger-pointing. The MEP thinks that the solution is going to be costly and prolonged but it needs to be looked for on the other side of the Mediterranean. Asylum applications need to be filed before people get on the boats, they need to be processed quickly and only genuine asylum-seekers are to be let in Europe wrapped-up the Conservative MEP.

Translated by Stanimir Stoev

The June Summit of Ins and Outs