MEP Siegfried Mureşan, BDI director general Markus Kerber and Eurogroup Working Group president Thomas Wieser discuss the future of the European Economic and Monetary Union. © KAS

More pragmatism for the reform of the European Economic and Monetary Union

“How to strengthen the Economic and Monetary Union?” was the main question of a high-level panel discussion organized jointly by BDI and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) at the end of January 2016. BDI director general Markus Kerber urged for more pragmatism with regard to the current European challenges. Migration inflows and the future of the European Economic and Monetary Union could not be considered separately.

Markus Kerber discussed jointly with Thomas Wieser, president of the Eurogroup Working Group and Siegfried Mureşan, member of the European Parliament about the future of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Kerber stressed the lines of BDI that were made public in a BDI position paper in September 2015: A reform of the EMU must comprise structural reforms, fiscal consolidation, the completion of Banking and Capital Markets Union as well as a more coherent European economic policy.

Thomas Wieser underlined the necessity of extensive reforms. “A fiscal union is impossible without a political Union”, he summarized the way ahead of EMU. Siegfried Mureşan emphasized the importance of public opinion: “People are often opposed to structural reforms”. The panellists concluded that it was an essential duty of economic and political opinion leaders to explain the role of Europe. Europe's main task is the provision of European public goods. A stable EMU is an essential part of it.