Opinion: Sour Grapes at the European Commission?

It's a first in the history of the European Union and it's left Germany gasping for breath and German Finance Minister Hans Eichel calling for "cooperation rather than confrontation." EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes, who is charged with overseeing the Stability Pact, is seeking legal backing to overturn a ruling which suspends EU budget rules for Germany and France.

So is this a case of Solbes being a bad loser? Why is he pushing so hard to bring the EU Executive before the European Court of Justice when the outcome and implications of such action are so unclear? The proud Spaniard suffered political defeat back in November of last year when the majority of ministers on the Council of Finance Ministers voted in favor of suspending EU budget rules for France and Germany on the grounds that it doesn't make economic sense to punish them for stepping over the budget line. Both "offenders" say they won't manage to meet the three percent limit before 2005.

Feeling jaded?

It is a clear political decision which the administrative powers at the EU don't want to accept.

As the Union's legislative power, the EU Executive has the authority to make or change the rules, but the EU Commission, which oversees European treaties, feels like it's nose has been knocked out of joint. Solbes is particularly irritated by the fact that the ministers strayed from the official line in the treaty, binned his suggestions and came up with their own agreements for France and Germany.

Even if the court in Luxembourg were to take on the charges and were to rule in favor of the commissioners, the practical repercussions would be practically non-existent, other than to provide the Commission with the chance to savor a moral victory. It would have been far more sensible to push for a simplification of the rules and to adjust the criteria in the 1997 stability pact so as to make them reflect the economic reality of 2004. And this could have happened long before the power struggle between Brussels and Berlin began.

Had he acted earlier to work with Pedro Solbes, German Finance Minister Hans Eichel could have helped to avoid the current misery. But given that the two men seem as stubborn minded as each other, that never happened.

Hard times ahead

The German EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Günter Verheugen, who is opposed to the decision to seek legal action, is quite right when he says that this increased aggravation is no help for the union. With the troubled constitution still hanging over Europe's head, member states really have more important things to worry about than an internal legal dispute.

Heads of state and government have to take another serious stab at creating a working constitution if the Union is to maintain its reputation for being a viable institutional and political partner. The EU has to define the financial framework for trading after 2007 and then there are the all important discussions on whether or not Turkey will be granted membership. They have to digest the addition of ten new members and with the terms of office for EU Commission president, Romano Prodi, and his department heads due to end in November, they also have some important personnel issues to deal with.

So what, in that case, is the point of dubious legal action which will do little to help the stability pact? The joke in Brussels is that Solbes is trying to imitate his famous forefather, Don Quijote, who made a name for himself by battling imaginary windmills.

But leaving the whisperings in Brussels aside, it is certainly too soon for Hans Eichel to begin rejoicing. At the end of the year he has to prove that he can sink the German budget deficit below the obligatory three percent. It is a tough goal for Eichel who has his hands full with Germany's economic development. Indeed, his ministry has already warned that it will be very difficult to meet the notorious Maastricht criteria in 2005.