Mario Monti, the former European commissioner who has been appointed to advise Commission President José Manuel Barroso on the single market, says that France and Germany must be reconciled to further EU economic integration.
Monti told European Voice: “We need again to convince countries with a tradition of social market economies of the virtues of the single market.”
In October, Barroso tasked Monti, who was European commissioner for internal market policy in 1995-99 and commissioner for competition in 1999-2004, with preparing a report on how to “relaunch” work on the single market.
Monti said that there was a need for a “new deal” between countries with a “social market” mentality and those with an “Anglo-Saxon” outlook.
“We need to find a way in which the pursuit of market integration is not seen as a hindrance to each member state's ability to pursue social objectives,” he said.
Barroso wrote in his ‘mission letter' to Monti that the crisis had revealed a “strong temptation” among member states to retreat into “economic nationalism”.
Barroso's decision, announced on 27 November, to allocate the internal market portfolio in his next administration to France's European commissioner, Michel Barnier, has stirred up a storm of criticism.
Monti said he disagreed with concerns expressed by the UK Conservative party and the City of London that Barnier would pursue an anti-liberal agenda. He said that Barnier was committed to the single market, and would dispel the concerns “as soon as” he took office. “He will show very soon how committed he is,” Monti said.
He said that he and Barnier had “worked very well together” during the Prodi commission, when Barnier held the regional policy and institutional affairs portfolio. He said his impression was that Barnier “very much welcomes” Barroso's decision to commission the report.
But Monti added that he was concerned about attitudes to the single market in France and Germany. He said that there were signs prior to the crisis of “a growing rejection” of the single market and that this was “particularly” true of France and Germany. He cited as evidence the resistance that the two countries mounted against his proposal, when he was a European commissioner, to remove barriers to cross-border takeovers, and to the Commission's proposal in 2004 to liberalise cross-border trade in services. He said that arguments put forward during the French referendum campaign in 2004 on an EU constitutional treaty had called into question “the basic principles” of the single market.
Monti said that his report would examine both gaps in the single market and how to ensure stronger enforcement of the laws underpinning it. He said that specific areas that he will examine for gaps will include the online market and mobility issues such as portability of pensions. He said he would also examine how well the services directive, which comes into force on 28 December, has been implemented and “where we go from there”.
Monti said he planned to present his report to Barroso before the end of April.
He said that he had requested relevant policy departments in the Commission to prepare recommendations for what should go into his report. Monti said he had had discussions with Commission officials and MEPs and would attend a meeting of national ambassadors next week.
