Meeting of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on the Economic Dialogue and exchange of views with Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, ECOFIN President and Dutch Minister for Finance, in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM,&nbsp;ECOFIN President, Esther de LANGE (EPP, NL), Pervenche BER&Egrave;S (S&amp;D, FR), Bernd LUCKE (ECR, DE), and Sylvie GOULARD (ALDE, FR)

Brussels

exchange of views

meeting

BERÈS, Pervenche (S&D, FR)

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

LUCKE, Bernd (ECR, DE)

economic dialogue (T)

DIJSSELBLOEM, Jeroen

DE LANGE, Esther (EPP, NL)

GOULARD, Sylvie (ALDE, FR)

Ecofin

Economic Dialogue and exchange of views with Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, ECOFIN chair and Dutch Minister for Finance: extracts from the meeting of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Arrival of Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM,  ECOFIN President and Dutch Minister for Finance, handshake.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of the Eurogroup, On our request the Commission put forward an action plan on terrorism financing, money laundering, on Friday 's ECOFIN we will take stock of the save play. But I can mention that substantial progress has been achieved, in particular when it comes to the implementation of exiting legal acts.

SOUNDBITE (English), Esther de LANGE (EPP, NL), About the credibility of the Commission on the Stability and Growth Pact: Have you also been in touch, about that with the Commission, specifically, and what was their reaction, why is that so important to you?

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of the Eurogroup, , I'm very worried; when we have agreements between us it is of course important that all of us comply. Yes there is flexibility, that fine, and I've argued for flexibility in relation to structural reforms, I'm perfectly happy with flexibility. But here the role of the EC is crucial. If member states feel that the EC 's decisions are very hard to understand, and very hard to predict, and are not objective, and are perhaps distinguishing between small and large member states, that is a very big worry.

SOUNDBITE (French), Pervenche BER&#200;S (S&amp;D, FR), The way in which you've talked about the Commission role in implementing the stability pact, do you believe, when you talk about this role, that the EC has been arbitrary in the way they have applied the rules?

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of the Eurogroup, There have been some concerns regarding recent decisions of on the CSR's (country-specific recommendations ) for Spain and Portugal , because that seems to indicate also extra time in the EDP (Excessive Deficit Procedure ) procedure . That raise a lot of questions, whether the rules will be applied correctly , so we will discuss that in Ecofin. There was a comment by the President of the Commission on how France should be treated differently and why, because is not what I believe, it is a comment by the President saying that France apparently deserve a different treatment because it is France. I'm trying to understand this kind of comment.

SOUNDBITE (German), Bernd LUCKE (ECR, DE), On the third pillar that has been used as a justification on their guarantee scheme . For example, imagine a kind of competitive solution to achieve that, if it is possible all across Europe to have citizens access to any different bank not just in those active in their country, that will mean that citizens could chose the bank that give best security to their savings on the competitive savings.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of the Eurogroup, I always feel that wherever a depositor is, in whatever country, in whichever bank, it's deserves, in the EU, the same kind of protection.

SOUNDBITE (French), Sylvie GOULARD (ALDE, FR), Are you agreeing with Mr Sch&auml;uble who's saying in the case the British people will vote to get our the EU &lt;'in' is 'in' and 'out' is 'out' &gt;?

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of the Eurogroup, In my experience - you know, we had a couple of referenda in the Netherlands - , one thinks that certainly what doesn't work is to threaten the voters and to tell them what terrible things may happen if they make a certain choice. I don't think that's a good approach. What I'm trying to tell - well, the British voters are probably not interested in what I have to say, but let say they are - so then I will say there is a very good and strong and good argument for European cooperation ,and that is in very strong British interest, for many reasons.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of the Eurogroup, for example, I think that the key issue on the Brexit debate is about migration. The topic of migration doesn't go away if you step out of the EU. There will still be a very strong case for UK and France to work together along the channel tunnel, there will still be a very strong case to work together, also with British involvement, in the regions on Turkey, Syria, etc, So there are very good positive reasons why a European cooperation is a good idea, also for the British. And by the way for me is not good enough for the UK to remain a member, I will really like to see them become once again an active member , in the forefront of designing and improving what we are doing here. They once used to be, but they become more and more passive, defensive. What I will like to see is an offensive British membership.