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German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, (both CDU) want to upgrade and model the Luxembourg-based rescue fund after the International Monetary Fund (IMF), creating its own ‘European Monetary Fund’.
Merkel and Schäuble want this ‘EMF’ to be able to monitor the finances of all the eurozone countries. But EU Tax Commissioner Pierre Moscovici is against the idea. The reason: monitoring eurozone budgets is a competence of the Commission.
Yesterday (7 March), Moscovici was in Berlin and he met with, among others, Schäuble’s deputy, Jens Spahn, and German MP Ralph Brinkhaus (both CDU).
It is likely that the French Commissioner will continue to push for institutional involvement in the plan. Moscovici has previously insisted that a European monetary fund should “not be a totally technocratic body”. [...]