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The working document sees a weakness of the Eurozone in the fact that the Treaty of Maastricht left the responsibility for stabilisation measures to the national budgets. One had recognised after the outbreak of the financial crisis that the Eurozone had not been able to offset the external and internal shocks accordingly. Even though during the course of the following years a number of measures had been adopted, such as the European Semester, EFSF and EFSM (now: ESM), the Parliament criticises that in its capacity as an institution it has been bypassed when these decisions were taken; it therefore demands that it will be involved in the implementation of each new form of a fiscal capacity budget (see: Report of the Five Presidents, which provides for a Eurozone budget after 2017).
Questions regarding a Eurozone budget and discussion in the Parliament
The working documents and the subsequent discussion in the competent Committee focused on the following questions:
1. Why do we need fiscal capacity for the Eurozone?
2. Which functions should the budget fulfil?
3. Which funds should be used to finance it?
4. What are the doubts?
There are many different opinions as to how a joint budget could be structured. Basically, such a budget should be able to balance uncertainties and fluctuations within the Eurozone. The focus on public and private investments, structural reforms, which are not covered by the multiannual financial framework and convergence measures are three main functions that are mentioned. It could be financed by transfers between national states, own resources from tax, funds from the ESM or by joint bonds. Apart from that, concerns were voiced regarding an effective size of the budget, permanent transfers or that such a stabilisation function might tempt states not to pay attention to their budget deficits.
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