BRUSSELS (AFX) - EU monetary and economic affairs commissioner Pedro Solbes said euro zone members should provide the euro group with earlier information about economic policy changes.
The recommendation is included in proposals to ministers on how to strengthen economic policy coordination within the euro zone. The proposals do not change the regulatory framework covering the euro group, which continues to rely on peer pressure and consensus, he said.
However, providing earlier information would enable other member states to assess and comment on planned policies in a particular member state and give a chance for that state to take their views into account, he said.
There is no question of making the system legally binding or introducing sanctions against countries resisting the peer pressure, or penalising them, he said.
But improving the system in this way could have helped avoid the recent arguments over Ireland's unilateral policies, he said. "Part of the difficulty of recent weeks is that we've been getting information late, because that is how the system works. If it comes earlier, it will be easier to let members give their views and for the state concerned to take their views into account," he said. In the Irish case, "peer pressure and pressure for consensus is something that should work," he said.
Solbes also called for EMU members to provide fuller economic statistics and earlier ones.
Another recommendation is for the EU-15's Economic and Financial Committee, which prepares the work of the Ecofin finance ministers council, should set up a committee to prepare the work of the euro group, he said.
This committee should convene more often than the EFC itself, which normally meets only once a month.
He denied this would remove influence from the three non-euro group countries -- the UK, Sweden and Denmark.
Final decisions for the EU as a whole still require debate and approval by Ecofin, he noted.
He also called for the euro group to issue more regular press releases about policy issues.