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Overwhelming majority in favour of proposal to organise Troika differently...The European Parliament today adopted proposals with an overwhelming majority by Vice-President of the European Parliament Othmar Karas to differently organise the work of the so-called Troika in the European crisis countries. 488 MEPs voted in favour of the proposals, 140 voted against, and 27 abstained.

"The Troika must not be made the scapegoat for the problems. She prevented a disaster. For the future she must be made better, more transparent and more democratic", Karas said. "In the short-term, the Troika needs internal rules of procedure to increase the transparency of decision-making. In the long-term, Troika's work should be carried out by a new European Monetary Fund on the basis of EU law. This ensures that European decisions on the reform and aid programmes are democratically legitimised and subject to parliamentarian scrutiny. Only in this way will the citizens’ acceptance increase", he explained.

The proposals which Karas negotiated with the other political groups defend the need for the Troika: "The financial assistance succeeded in avoiding a disorderly default on sovereign debt that would have had extremely severe economic and social consequences which would have, arguably, been worse than the current economic and social problems", states the adopted text.

"We were facing the biggest economic crisis since the Second World War. Without the Troika, some countries would be completely broke. It is out of the question to abolish the Troika now", Karas stressed.

At the same time, more transparency, more participation and more control is necessary. "The Troika has been a gap-filler which must now be organised in a better way to make solidarity within the EU function better in the future", said the MEP.

Karas also pointed out that the crisis revealed in which areas the EU was not sufficiently capable of acting. "Every Member State has got clear rules on how to deal, for instance, with ailing municipalities which face insolvency. The EU too needs a 'State Bankruptcy Prevention Law'. We need this and I will fight to get it", Karas concluded.