The year 2010 is marked by major challenges for the European Union. The EU has to tackle the consequences of a crisis that is far from over and that puts the political and social cohesion of Member States and the currency union at risk. It needs to keep the momentum for financial reform, both internally and at global level. Finally, it has to find the path for job creation through sustainable growth.

As chair and rapporteur of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Financial crisis, we expect the Commissioner-designates’ hearings to focus on the Commission’s capacity to mobilise all tools at hand to put the EU in the best position to overcome the crisis and ensure sustained growth and jobs.
The Members of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis will question the Commissioner-designates during their auditions to ensure they bear the importance of the above outlined challenges in mind and are committed to address them successfully.

We welcome the first initiative by Herman van Rompuy, the new President of the Council of the European Union, to convene a special economic summit on February 11 as well as Prime Minister Zapatero’s group of wise persons on the same topic. But we recall that to be effective, such initiatives must be promoted and implemented through the European and not the intergovernmental method.

Wolf Klinz, Chairman of the Special Committee, states: « It is a good sign that the new EU-President and the Spanish Presidency have defined the exit of the crisis and recovery as the top priority of their work for the coming months. But we now need to see concrete decisions and actions. This crisis is a window of opportunity that we should not miss. »

« The expectations towards the new Commission are high; it will be measured according to its ability to find convincing answers to the crisis in a forward looking way. It will have to coordinate the Member States’ exit strategies while shaping guidelines for an EU 2020 strategy that is based on solid financial markets, sustainable growth and job creation in the real economy and will deal effectively with the challenge of climate change and demographic developments », said Pervenche Berès, rapporteur of the Special Committee.