Reply #15: Brussels to put bad pupils under tutelage

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http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief-cover/1199081-brussels-put-bad-pupils-under-tutelage

“Europe seeks power to place weak states in ‘administration’", leads the Irish Times. Reporting that “the Commission wants the Brussels authorities to be given the power to place distressed eurozone countries in a form of EU ‘administration’”, the Dublin daily notes that “Germany has resisted for months.”

For Dutch daily De Volkskrant, this may lead to increasingly stringent recommendations, to mandatory reports, stress tests for banks, inspections by the men from the Commission and, in severe cases, an obligatory loan from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and placement under trusteeship, or even the stripping of subsidies. De Volkskrant sums it up in one line with: “Sinners in the eurozone will lose their subsidies."

Observing that “the idea that irresponsible policies are to be sanctioned by Brussels stepping in has been welcomed by the Netherlands,” the Dutch newspaper adds that “Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager have been lobbying their counterparts in recent months for a ‘tiered response’ that would see a country lose more and more power as a function of the deterioration in its financial position.”

Once financial discipline is achieved, the issuing of the famous “Eurobonds”, or bonds from the European treasury, can be considered, the Irish Times explains. The Commission’s projects, “which will meet with resistance from various countries in the south, especially France,” will be presented on November 23 and discussed by European leaders on December 9, De Volkskrant concludes.