Euro Plus Pact in the media I

How have blogs and other media received the economic policy guidelines and decisions adopted by the European Council spring meeting? Have they been as impressed as some political leaders by their own feats?


European Council recap

We started with the 'Spring European Council summary' on Grahnlaw, then continued with more general reflections in Swedish on Grahnblawg 'Europeiska rådets slutsatser: Konsensus och ogenomskinlighet' and 'Europeiska rådet: Status och slutsatser på 23 språk'.

Yesterday, on Grahnlaw Suomi Finland we looked at the spring meeting of the European Council through blog reactions. Although the entry is in Swedish, the links lead to the posts in the original languages: Europeiska rådet om ekonomin i Europabloggar one, two and three.


Primary source

The conclusions remain the primary source:

European Council 24/25 March 2011: Conclusions; Brussels, 25 March 2011 (EUCO 10/11; 34 pages)


No false modesty from the European Council when it started its conclusions about economic policy by proclaiming (paragraph 1, on page 2):

The European Council today adopted a comprehensive package of measures to respond to the crisis, preserve financial stability and lay the ground for smart, sustainable, socially inclusive and job-creating growth. This will strengthen the economic governance and competitiveness of the euro area and of the European Union.

After the meeting, Commission president José Manuel Durão Barroso waxed lyrical about the 'historic' conclusions, but he also offered a brief overview of the decisions taken (SPEECH/11/216).


Euro Plus Pact

One of the novelties was the Euro Plus Pact, which joins 17 eurozone countries with six still outside the euro area. Let us continue by looking at interesting posts on Euroblogs, while including other media in the round-up.

If political leaders were awe-struck by their feats, were other commentators as impressed?

Eva en Europa reminds us of the various stages on the road towards the final adoption of the Euro Plus Pact. The Pact is based on enduring self-interest more than on European ideals (in Spanish): Je t'aime ...Moi non plus (25 March 2011).

The Blog de Luis Casas Luengos dissects the Europact critically, as a denial of the systemic nature of the euro crisis: Pacto del euro: felíz año 2006 (28 March 2011).

Andrew Watt on the Social Europe Journal blog notes that the Euro Plus Pact and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) provide more effective and timely financial support in exchange for greater European integration of economic policymaking. However, the Pact is not a path out of the crisis: The euro plus pact – a plus but not a solution (28 March 2011)




Ralf Grahn