Is handing power to Brussels the best way to control Member States' budgets? Should misbehaving Member States be fined or have voting rights suspended for a high budget deficit? MEPs debate.

Focus: How to avoid another Greek crisis

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/15291914/m001-0040-en.srt

To prevent another Greek-style crisis,  EU governments have agreed

to better coordinate  their economic policies.

We are in Paris to ask MPs  how they feel about the fact

that financial laws  will first be debated in Brussels

before being approved  at national level.

Later on, we will discuss this  with our guests in Strasbourg.

We're in Domont,  a few kilometres from Paris.

Jérôme Chartier has been mayor of this  commune of 15,000 people for 15 years.

The mayor is also an MP.  Between two council meetings,

Mr Chartier keeps a close eye on the  budget debate at the National Assembly.

The budget debate this year  is particularly difficult

because we're forced to make choices,  to reduce the State's spending.

But the French budgetary calendar  could soon change.

Next spring, it'll be the Finance Ministers  who will start proceedings.

They'll come to Brussels  to present their annual draft budget,

before opening the debate  in their own parliament.

A real revolution, after the Greek crisis.

The idea is to foresee budget overruns  and correct the course before it's too late.

This new way of working has been named  the European semester.

At the National Assembly in Paris,  we meet up with Jérôme Chartier.

Will the European Semester threaten  national parliaments' sovereignty?

To prevent a recurrence  of what happened in Greece,

so that there is some kind of convergence  in the main budget lines

But it is fact that the budgetary debate,  between a minister and his parliament,

will occur only after the approval  of European partners has been gained.

Germany will have its say  on France and vice versa.

But not everyone approves of  this transfer of power to Brussels.

French Henri Emmanuelli has been  a socialist MP for 30 years.

I don't want to criticise Germany  but the process is undemocratic.

Parliaments are voted in on the basis  of taxes, in all countries and democracies.

To announce there'll now  be an initial phase,

after which the Parliament  will give their opinion,

demonstrates complete ignorance  of the democratic model.

MPs in the Bundestag in Berlin  do not share the opinion.

but it did decide to help Greece along with  the eurozone - to save the euro.

In return for this, Berlin demanded  more budgetary restraint and controls.

Christian Democrat MP Michael Fuchs  comes from the German business world.

We still have to demand strict  budgetary discipline from all countries.

Germany is on the right path. This year  we're going to have a deficit of 4%,

but it's still above the Maastricht criteria,

so we have to do our homework.  But so do the other countries.

At worst, new sanctions could be applied  in case the deficits persist.

The public still needs convincing,  as in the recent months

they've been inclined to criticise the  austerity measures enforced in Europe.

After the Greek crisis a quick reaction  was needed to protect the eurozone.

But solidarity comes at a price: beefing up  budgetary supervision in Member States

But what supervision  and what controls?

We're talking about it today  with Othmar Karas

and Miguel Portas from the Confederal  Group of the European United Left.

First of all, what do you think  of this European semester?

Could national parliaments  lose their sovereignty?

Is that the price  of more economic coordination?

Othmar Karas, what do you think  of this European semester?

I'm very much in favour,  although I don't like its name.

Nobody knows what it means.  The term reminds me of school.

It is about developing  a more common budgetary policy

and a more community based  economic policy in Europe.

but we don't have the common tools  which are crucial to a monetary union.

The least we can do is talk to one other  and check if the budgets,

which are and which will continue  to be decided at national level,

I think there's a problem of democracy  in this particular choice,

that is the choice  of this European semester.

Before, the Member States  used to make compromises -

But they were free to choose  at the level of the national parliaments

the mix that would allow them  to reach 3%...

each country could decide to spend  more on defence or on education,

but you can imagine strong countries...  - That's not right.

The decision making process  will not change.

But the opinion formation process will  have a stronger common EU aspect.

In my view this is a positive thing.  We are all part of the European Union.

Therefore, we are all responsible  for what happens in the EU.

The democratic decisions  will still be taken in the Member States,

but the political debate  will have a stronger European focus.

In light of our membership  in the eurozone

and in the European Union,  this is a very positive development.

The democratic sovereignty  of the Member States will not be affected.

So that people at home can understand,  you perhaps need to explain,

in April they present an outlook  for the next year,

then if the EU agrees, it's OK,  otherwise corrections are made...

Isn't there a risk that the strongest  country of the eurozone, Germany,

could go to a weaker country,  like Portugal, and say: