Bundestag's revolt gains support

The Bundestag's revolt against the ESM procedures also gathered pace (see our morning briefing yesterday), after the publication of the court of auditor's report warning that the liabilities for the German taxpayers may be higher than foreseen so far. MPs are angry at Wolfgang Schäuble for informing only the Bundestag's budgetary committee on negotiations around the EMS and not the entire parliament. "The whole parliament has to be involved", Gunther Kirchbaum, the chairman of the European affairs committee, told Handelsblatt. So far it is unclear how the parliament will be involved. There are tricky issues to be solved. There is for example the five-year period in which the participating states contribute the paid in capital with a total volume of €80bn. In case of a big rescue operation the states may have to top up their participation. It is unclear what the parliament's influence would be. The parliamentarians of the three coalition parties CDU, CSU and FDP want to work closely together to get a maximum of Bundestag involvement.