MR Jacques Delors, president of the EC Commission, broke his
self-imposed silence during the Maastricht ratification process
yesterday and bounced back to his old ways with a call for closer
European unity.
He also took a swipe at Britain's economic policies by suggesting they
would fail.
Mr Delors told the European Parliament meeting in plenary in
Strasbourg that the second stage of economic and monetary union was on
the doorstep. ''And there is no need to postpone it,'' he said.
Under the terms of the Maastricht treaty the second stage comes into
effect on January 1 next year, and it seems Europe is now preparing
itself for the run-up to monetary union without Britain and Italy, whose
currencies are still outside the exchange rate mechanism of the European
Monetary System.
Asked by The Herald if this was now the start of a two-speed Europe
with the British in the slow lane, Mr Niels Helveg Petersen, Foreign
Minister of Denmark, which holds the EC presidency, replied: ''We will
be entering the second phase. This is clearly in the text and this is
what is going to happen. I think this will proceed as foreseen in the
treaty.''
Mr Delors's speech yesterday was the first since the Danes voted in
favour of Maastricht in their second referendum earlier this month. He
now sees the ratification process going more smoothly, and feels free to
speak up again without risk to the treaty.
He said decisions on the siting of European institutions would be
taken next month at the Copenhagen summit before the Danes hand over the
six-month EC presidency to the Belgians.
This means that the summit will choose a site for the European
Monetary Institute, the forerunner of EuroFed, the European central bank
envisaged in Maastricht. The EuroFed will oversee the proposed single
European currency.
Edinburgh and London are rivals in a bid to attract some of the
EuroFed's activities. However, the chances of either winning a slice of
EuroFed will remain slim as long as sterling remains outside the ERM.
Mr Delors also caused some confusion about Britain and the ERM. Under
Maastricht's terms, the second stage of Emu begins after ''all obstacles
to financial integration'' should have been removed. By insisting that
Emu will enter stage two on time, Mr Delors seemed to predict an early
return of the pound to the battered grid, despite the statement last
week by the Chancellor, Mr Norman Lamont, that sterling will probably
remain detached for two or three years at least.
This will fuel speculation that if Mr Major ditches his Chancellor
soon, the Government might feel the time has come for a change of policy
on the mechanism which, the Prime Minister insists, still has fault
lines which must be repaired before re-entry. Terms for re-entry could
yet be on the agenda for the Copenhagen summit next month, especially if
there is a new face in No 11 Downing Street.
Mr Delors looked towards a stronger role for the Ecu, the proposed
pan-European currency which he described as a sad orphan. He said the
period between stages two and three of monetary union would be critical
if the community was to make the Ecu, currently worth about 80p, a
reality.
He said European economies faced the most sombre forecasts since the
Second World War. In the recession it was evident that Europe was not as
good as Japan and the United States at creating jobs.
The convergence process for European economies ahead of monetary union
was not only good for Emu, he said, but would help to put all the EC's
12 economies on a sounder footing.
Mr Delors said two economic policies were running in tandem in Europe
-- the policy of devaluing currency and lowering interest rates (the
British way); and the policy of maintaining stability and exchange rates
while reducing budget deficits (favoured by the other 11).
''But they are nullifying each other in reality,'' he said. He accused
countries which had devalued outside the mechanism -- Britain and Italy
-- of taking a beggar thy neighbour approach.
''There will be no advantage from competitive devaluation,'' Mr Delors
said.
Europe was bound to become wider. ''We must have an EC which is
efficient and deepens its sense of unity. Mr Delors added, in a phrase
which will alarm the anti-federalists in Britain, ''We need a
blueprint''.
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