Maria João Rodrigues (S&D). – Mr President, the integration of the fiscal compact into the legal framework of the European Union should be envisaged only if the lessons of recent years are properly taken into account. The first lesson is that this Treaty is also about coordination and governance. When it comes to coordination, the objectives are not only stability but also growth and convergence. We have learned in recent years that this convergence should be guided by economic and social targets together and the European Semester should be designed with this purpose.

When it comes to reforms, the assumption is that the reforms which should be recommended to Member States should take into account their real priorities and not invented priorities. But we also need to deal with the governance part of the treaty and the governance must be democratic, which is not yet the case. This means that, if a eurozone summit is now being convened, let me remind you that the Treaty provides for Parliament’s President to be invited. Most of all, we need to make sure that, all through the process, Parliament will play a central role: when we discuss the reforms of the economic and monetary union (EMU), when we discuss the fiscal stance and when we discuss the recommendations for the euro area. We also need to recognise that there is a role for the national parliaments – yes, there is – when they are involved in discussing the national reform programmes and the country—specific recommendations. But overall we need an interinstitutional agreement to set the rules for real democratic governance of the EMU.

Finally, on fiscal discipline, let me be clear: of course we need common fiscal discipline in the eurozone to make it sustainable, but it is also clear that, in order to have this common fiscal discipline, if we do not want to hinder growth and growth potential, we need to complement national fiscal discipline – which should be intelligent – with a proper fiscal capacity, as all other monetary zones in the world have. No monetary zone in the world has existed and been sustainable without a fiscal capacity.

So these are our lessons to be integrated into the new framework.