BRATISLAVA, December 6, (WEBNOVINY) — The strongest party of the former ruling coalition in Slovakia, SDKU-DS, perceives the agreement struck between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel as good news for Slovakia. Party leader, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikulas Dzurinda remarked that Slovakia’s initial political position, expressed after the rejection of the bilateral loan to Greece, is thus being materialized. “The call for automatic sanctions was the basic element of our political stance. We are convinced that the aim we should pursue today is the strengthening of fiscal discipline of member states,” he told journalists Tuesday. Only fiscal discipline of member states can offer a chance for economic growth and new jobs. At the same time, he stressed that Slovakia would not support expansion of regulation and bureaucracy in Brussels.
The head of Slovakia’s diplomacy has warned against any hesitation even if tighter budgetary rules needed a revision of the Lisbon Treaty. “Regarding the Lisbon Treaty change, should these measures lead to desired goals, the Slovak Republic should say yes,” he noted. The go-ahead should be granted even if the veto right would be limited in some cases and more decisions would be approved by just a qualified majority.
Finance Minister Ivan Miklos has welcomed the plan as it preserves the participation of the private sector in the new bailout mechanism. He also praised the fact that the two leaders did not back unlimited intervention of the ECB into resolving problems of highly indebted countries. The agreed plan does not need to include the frequently discussed harmonization of direct taxes, a concept that Slovakia has rejected due to its potential harmful consequences.
At the Monday meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy admitted that the sovereign debt crisis cannot be resolved under current rules. Therefore, Berlin and Paris are suggesting a new treaty on the EU with stringent budgetary rules. The Franco-German proposals count on automatic sanctions against countries violating budgetary rules. The European Court of Justice shall help enforce that the rules are followed but it will not be authorized to call national budgets null and void, as Berlin originally suggested. Countries shall enshrine balanced-budget rules in their constitutions. Paris and Berlin spoke out in favor of earlier ESM activation that was supposed to replace the EFSF in mid-2013. Merkel and Sarkozy would like to switch on the bailout tool with higher firepower as soon as 2012. At their meeting, the two politicians swept the concept of eurobonds under the carpet.
SITA