[PEN-L:9400] Opposition to Maastricht Treaty Grows (fwd)

[D Shniad <shniad@xxxxxx>]

> Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 16:29:24 -0400 (EDT)
> From: "Tony Wohlfarth, CAW - Canada" <tw@xxxxxxx>
> Subject: Opposition to Maastricht Treaty Grows
>
> Germany: SPD To Vote No on Maastricht If No EU Employment Policy
>
> Berlin Die Welt (Internet version) in German 4 Apr 97
> Report by Karl-Ludwig Guensche:  "SPD Threatens a No Vote on
> Maastricht"
>
> Bonn--The SPD [Social Democratic Party] has threatened to allow the
> revised Maastricht Accord to fail in the vote in the Bundestag, if the EU
> nations do not commit themselves in the treaty to an active employment
> policy.  Deputy SPD chairman Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul yesterday further
> announced indirectly in front of journalists in Bonn that the Social
> Democrats would also withdraw their agreement for the European Monetary
> Union [EMU] if the Federal Government continues to misuse it as a pretext
> for a false economic, fiscal and social policy.
> The deputy SPD chairman said that the SPD's basic yes to EMU and the
> euro was valid.  She also expressly warned against a postponement, which at
> the very least would be the same as a temporary failure of the EMU.  But
> certain conditions will still have to be met.  The SPD politician demanded
> of the Federal Government that it end its "policy of social clear-cutting"
> and give up the "totally unpermitted linking" of the EMU to a policy of
> social cutbacks.  Chancellor Helmut Kohl should know that the continuation
> of this policy would endanger the political consensus for implementing the
> EMU in the German Bundestag.  However, Frau Wieczorek-Zeul avoided a clear
> answer as to whether this announcement also means that the SPD would reject
> the euro in the Bundestag vote in the coming year unless her conditions
> were met. She cannot prevent it, since in the words of the SPD politician
> only a simple majority is needed.  Wieczorek-Zeul also did not want to
> comment on the question of whether Germany would fulfill the criteria for
> participation in the EMU as early as 1 January 1999.
> In the SPD's view, regulations are needed in the revised Maastricht
> Accord on an active employment policy and a coordinated economic policy
> between the EU nations as a necessary balance to the EMU.  Without the
> anchoring of such an obligation, her party would not agree to ratify the
> Maastricht II Accord in the Bundestag.  Since ratification by a two-thirds
> majority is needed, the treaty would fail.
> Meanwhile, the finance minister of Lower Saxony, Willi Waike (SPD)
> doubted that EMU would start punctually.  For that to happen, "incredible
> things" would have to take place in the coming six months, such as an
> employment miracle.  The chairman of the German Salaried Employees' Union
> (DAG), Roland Issen, has demanded a delay in the introduction of the euro,
> if a further "reduction of social services or labor market policy
> requirements" is linked to it.  Under these conditions the DAG would have
> to reject the timetable for introducing the euro, according to Issen.