Dátum: 21.02.2014
I have read it with a lot of interest and generally I consider it an excellent piece of work as it deals with major strategic questions. Notably I agree with your suggestion to revise the current capital requirement directive again to introduce an appropriate risk weight for sovereign debts.
Günter Verheugen
With the permission from Mr. Verheugen, former European Commissioner, we are proud to publish his reaction to our study:
“Dear Mr. Golias, thank you so much for your kind email and the enclosed study on solutions to the Debt crisis. I have read it with a lot of interest and generally I consider it an excellent piece of work as it deals with major strategic questions. Notably I agree with your suggestion to revise the current capital requirement directive again to introduce an appropriate risk weight for sovereign debts, which is still not a must. I do also believe that the implementation of the fiscal compact will be very important. As to the SGP I do believe that the instrument is important as such, however regularly fails, if the economy does not develop as forecasted, an inbuilt tension, which was not solved since its establishment.
Of course that does not mean that I share all the proposals. For example I do not believe that it would be wise or useful to lower the guarantee for bank deposits (proposal 8). I am of course aware that the average consumer in centrals and Eastern European countries might find such threshold very high, however across the EU small entrepreneurs may need such a guarantee to run their business. As I see it, much is being said in the past about owners of bigger deposits, however the repercussions on the real economy have not yet been properly studied. If you remember the Cyprus case, where the university and a number of small and medium sized businesses were also driven into massive problems, with no end in sight yet.
Finally I would like to make one remark – we should increasingly also deal with the real economy and notably with the question, what to do if the exchange rate is no longer available to address competitiveness weaknesses. Is “internal devaluation” the only option left or could the EU do more to give countries more flexibility to adjust to short-term challenges?
Hope you will find my comments useful
Kind regards
Günter Verheugen”