Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-03-14-Speech-3-269"
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"en.20010314.10.3-269"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank Mr von Wogau for his report, Mr Karas for his presentation and all of you for your speeches.
The Commission still insists on the need to continue making progress on these issues and, as you know, the Commission just yesterday presented new proposals to move ahead on the liberalisation of the energy market. We are aware that we have to seek a balance between liberalisation and regulation in order to achieve the best possible economic results from this process. We also agree that we have to make progress on the whole issue of creating more efficient and more integrated financial markets. You have just held a debate with Mr Bolkestein on the need to implement the procedures originating from the so-called Lamfalussy committee. There is no doubt that this is a step towards speeding up the processes of liberalising the financial services, but we believe that this is not sufficient and we also have to continue to make progress in relation to risk capital and the improvement of risk capital in Europe.
The labour market must be another of our main concerns if we wish to make progress on employment. A better combination of fiscal reforms and supply systems will certainly have a positive influence on the behaviour of the working population, as it must also help to create a better balance between wages and productivity on a local level, improve employment in certain areas and will also have a positive influence on certain factors such as the mobility of labour or better work organisation.
Another concern, which we do not believe is sufficiently highlighted in this report, concerns the problems of the long-term sustainability of public finances. The problems relating to the ageing of the population are going to be one of the key issues and in order to deal with them we are clearly going to have to take measures on public debt and measures for improving the labour market, by achieving a greater level of activity, a greater level of employment, in particular of women and older workers, which can also help to counter some of these effects, as will reforms of the current social security systems which are coherent with employment and sustainability of the model.
I would like to thank all of you for your speeches, your comments and your positive contributions to the report, which we will take into account when it comes to drawing up our proposed broad economic policy guidelines for next year.
This year, for the first time, the procedures for debating the broad economic policy guidelines have been modified as a result of the Lisbon procedure and you have had the opportunity to introduce a Parliamentary position on this debate which should, in principle, help us to define that economic policy which you – Mr Trentin, amongst others – have referred to and to which we are not attaching sufficient importance.
We in the Commission agree with the fundamental principles contained in the report, both paragraph one and paragraph two, relating to the social market economy and an economy based on a democratic model, price stability, sustainable growth, subsidiarity, solidarity etc., which are objectives we share fully.
I also agree with the point some of you have made in relation to the importance of this moment in time, since we are now less than 300 days away from the introduction of the euro. However, as always, I must repeat that we often confuse the introduction of notes and coins on 1 January next year with the introduction of the euro which took place on 1 January 1999, and which has already brought us clear benefits and positive results, as some of you have pointed out.
Amongst these positive results is the healthy economic situation the European Union currently enjoys. We must not rest on our laurels, because this healthy economic situation nevertheless masks certain deficiencies, certain problems caused by external factors, a certain lack of ambition in considering budgets and, above all, there are certain risks caused, in particular, by the development of economies such as the US economy.
In relation to this specific point, however, I would like to insist that the euro is also protecting us from the process of slowdown, which is affecting economies outside the European Union. The Commission’s position, which is still relatively optimistic in relation to the process of growth in Europe during 2001, is based on the fact that currently we in Europe still clearly have an historic level of confidence in consumers and producers, employment is still clearly improving and inflation has reached its ceiling. In this context, we believe that the obligation of those responsible for economic policy is, above all, to maintain short-term economic expansion. Therefore, according to our view of the issue, we insist that we need to continue to maintain a budgetary policy aimed at balancing public finances. We also believe that wage policy must be compatible with non-inflationist growth and the creation of employment and that monetary policy must remain committed to price stability. There is no doubt that monetary policy would benefit from a coherent tax policy and greater liberalisation of the markets.
Some of you have also raised the concern that employment is the fundamental issue. This is patently a key point. We therefore also insist – as we have done in our presentations of reports for Stockholm – on the increase in the Union’s growth potential. In our report on the 2000 review of the Union’s economy, the Commission studied the impact of expenditure and production in information and communication technologies and the advantages they could provide in relation to the possible increase in our growth potential.
Clearly, the structural reforms to which Mr Gasòliba referred are a fundamental point, but we must also focus on other shortcomings. Firstly, in Lisbon we focussed on the knowledge economy as a key and fundamental element. If we wish to make progress in this respect we must also create the right conditions for private-sector investment in research and development and in the new technologies. We also have to improve research and, at the same time, increase professional training for the new technologies.
Structural reforms are regularly mentioned. There is no doubt that we have made progress and that is clear from the report on the implementation of this year’s broad economic policy guidelines, but we must not view this progress as completely satisfactory."@en1
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