National MPs must act to ensure sustainable finances

Speaking at a conference on stability, coordination and governance in the Economic and Monetary Union in Brussels on 17 February 2016, Kees Vendrik, a member of the Court of Audit’s Board, called on national members of parliament to act to ensure the sustainability of public finances.

MPs in every member state of the European Union can help bring about a more coherent and transparent insight into the sustainability of public finances. National parliaments can urge their governments to improve that insight now that the rules agreed for EU economic policy are becoming clearer.

Parliaments in the individual member states can also scrutinise the Eurogroup more closely, according to Mr Vendrik. Control of and accountability for the governance of the Eurogroup is open to improvement. The announcement by its president, Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, that greater openness would be provided on the outcomes of the talks of the Eurogroup’s finance ministers is therefore to be welcomed.

In his speech Mr Vendrik used information from our EU Trend Report 2016 published in January and from our audit of EU economic management published in September 2014.

The interparliamentary conference was held to debate article 13 of the Budget Pact. MPs from the member states and members of the European Parliament discuss current developments in stability, coordination and governance every six months.