Thread by @lucasguttenberg

1/ A couple of thoughts on an #EU/#EMU finance minister and why the @EU_Commission proposal puts the cart before the horse:
When people hear finance minister, they think of 2 functions in the national context: preparing and executing the budget and proposing legislation.

@EU_Commission 2/ COM proposes to transfer Eurogroup president and COM VP for Euro roles to a single FM with a Mogherini-like double hat. No new competences are added. That is a finance minister without a budget. And if it's the ECFIN portfolio, with very little scope to propose legislation.

3/ Hence the FM will already in its structure fall short of what people imagine when they hear finance minister. He/she cannot possibly match the expectations that come with the title. So first discussion should be € budget and competences, not title.

4/ In addition, I still don't understand how the double hat will solve anything. If at all, the FM will be less independent from MS than current commissioners. That makes sense in foreign policy where the Union has little formal own competence, but seems weird in #EMU matters.

5/ To sum up: We should first discuss what we want the European level to do more and better in #EMU before we create a position that is bound to disappoint. Let's maybe now discuss banking union, EZ budget, fiscal rules - and save the institutional geeking for later.