#Romania2019.eu/ Head of Senate's European Affairs Committee advises effective shift to multi-factor convergence paradigm

Head of the Senate's European Affairs Committee Gabriela Cretu told the meeting of the chairs of the Conference of the Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs that there are no recipes for cohesion and convergence, and the achievement of these goals depends on national, community and global factors as well.

"We must understand that there are no cohesion and convergence recipes, and that the achievement of this goal depends on multiple factors. First, it depends on what we do in our own countries and what we can do on our own, but then it also depends on what happens at community and global level as well. (...) We must see the whole picture and make a good diagnosis of the state of play. At community level we have three categories of intervention instruments: financial instruments, the budget, regulations and the coordination of policies. Where do we stand as concerns these three aspects? We have to admit policy coordination is weak. The European Semester is far from working as it was imagined at the beginning," Cretu said at the conclusion of the debate this Monday.

Gabriela Cretu mentioned that European regulations can also be "contradictory", as some stimulate cohesion while others undermine it.

"It is a reproach we have notified in writing to the European Commission, to the various directorates, because they don't coordinate themselves. The Employment Directorate comes up with proposals that stimulate the increase of cohesion, while another directorate tables legislative proposals to the opposite effect. And then we can no longer keep control, we don't know who controls the results of the process. As for financial intervention, the budget is inclusively for ensuring the far too frail macroeconomic equilibrium, and it is so because unfortunately we are still living in an illusion - all national parliaments and all the states - that we will be able to sort things out through our own efforts at home, and that it is not necessary to transfer more money to Brussels to be used for solving common issues," said the president of the Senate's European Affairs Committee.

Cretu also advocated a change in the approach to economic indicators in the European economy.

"In the context where the greatest achievement of the EU - and it is almost accomplished - was the internal market, a borderless economy where people, goods and capital move freely, we still linger in the belief that we are working with borders. The indicators we use and the comparisons we make are still using national references. We use national indicators in a European economy and we delude ourselves in many aspects of the assessments we make. In this regard, it is paramount that we try to somehow change our approach. Business as usual - it doesn't work. Because we still think - and are tempted to do so particularly when national elections are approaching, in terms of an economy that no longer exists, which has substantially changed. From this point of view I can tell you that our meetings are extremely useful because in order to achieve our goals we need coordination, cooperation, because it is challenging to reach such goals that depend not only on the will of a government or of the European Commission, but on many factors that need to be convergent themselves," she said. AGERPRES (RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)

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