The ECC national debates have ended in April 2009. You may now debate the final 15 recommendations on the European portal
Novecošana
Lauksaimniecība
Bizness
Konkurence
Patērētāju aizsardzība
ECC
Ekonomiskā situācija
Izglītība
Enerģija
Vide
Eiro
Finanšu sistēma
Globalizācija
Zaļā ekonomika
Attīstība
Veselība
Industrija
Inflācija
Darbs
Migrācija
Nabadzība
Sabiedriskie pakalpojumi
Regional development
Pakalpojumi
Sociālais taisnīgums
Sociālā drošība
Tirdzniecība
Privileges of big countries (superpowers) have been promised to the citizens of the Latvia and other new member states when they voted for adjoining the Union. These promises have been fulfilled (at least partially) in some areas - e.g. as common education and science are of EU, as partial freedom of the movement of labor, but some big challenge to the Union is to protect the equality of member states when they see the imperative necessity to make sovereign loans. E.g. - big countries - e.g. United States and Germany can issue government bonds with the pretty small interest rates - around 3% for long term bonds and even below 0.5% for short term bonds. There is no any economic ground for their privileges, except - the size of their economies.
So - it should be imperative that EU must introduce common EU bonds to finance the government debt of their member states. It is not honest, that Italy and Greece are pressed to pay more than 6% interest on their debt and loans for new Central and East European (CEE) countries - like Latvia, comes with hard and sometime humiliating strings attached. Germany, Frances and other big economies have experienced drop in their interest rate because of the common currency, but there is no advantages to the new CEE member states, although - they had done great legislative work and sometimes it was rather costly (e.g. sugar industry was completely removed from Latvia upon the request of EU). ECB President said - that the decision about Eurobonds should be made by the legislative and executive institutions - e.g. by citizens of EU, not ECB; he suggested that European Investment Bank can be instrumental in issuance of Eurobonds.
So - my suggestion is - EU should issue common Eurobonds, that could finance the debt of EU governments.