Mario Draghi unveils plan for growth

At the biannual summit of the European Central Bank (ECB), which took place May 3 in Barcelona, its chairman Mario Draghi “asked EU leaders to place economic growth at the centre of the battle against the financial crisis and described the stability treaty as the ‘starting point’ on the path to a fiscal union in the euro zone” writes the Irish Times.

Suggesting a fiscal union could come about within ten years, Mr Draghi said this would involve the transfer of sovereignty from member states to a central authority.” Such would be the political dimension of the “growth agenda” according to Draghi.

In the view of Le Figaro, the “Growth Pact” promoted by Draghi is expected to balance the “Fiscal Pact” adopted by 25 of the 27 member countries to redress their finances. This growth requires “structural reforms to 'facilitate the work of entrepreneurs’”, notes the French newspaper, adding that “the head of the ECB summed up in three words his doctrine on the issue: 'Flexibility, mobility, fairness.’” La Stampa believes that in fact “the single currency is trying to change its face” and that —

… if the promises of the last days were to be realised, there would begin a significant reversal of the fundamental functions between the EU and the member states: the responsibility for expenditure would go to the former, and control over budgets to the latter. [Through the European Investment Bank], the EU will fund major infrastructure, capable of boosting employment, at rates much lower than what Rome or Madrid, to say nothing of Athens or Lisbon, would have to pay.

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