On monday evening the leaders of 25 out of 27 member states agreed upon a fiscal compact. LYMEC is disappointed by the result, which after months of negotiating seems to have watered down to a blurry compromise. The European young liberals believe that a strong Euro and a good functioning internal market can only exist if countries stick to budgetary discipline. The pact agreed however still allows to easily circumvent the debt brakes that it creates and that are meant to prevent national governments from consuming the money of future generations.

LYMEC President Alexander Plahr comments: “We believe that our internal market and the European currency brought us many good things, but as we have experienced during the sovereign debt crisis this cannot go without a shared responsibility for our system. We believe that the European Commission should have the power to take member states breaking the financial rules to the European Court of Justice. Unfortunately the compact reached seems to lack this essential tool to enforce the rules which were agreed today. The ECJ will only be able to control whether debt brakes are introduced into national legislation, not if they are observed. This means we again get an agreement that sounds good at first, but does lack the necessary commitment from member states for true fiscal stability and balanced budgets.”