Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-11-Speech-2-243"
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"en.20030311.10.2-243"2
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".
Mr President, I would like to welcome the Commissioner to this sitting. I would like to start by thanking all the parliamentary groups which have cooperated closely so that we can offer Parliament a clear text today, which focuses on action and not on words, on speeding up and not slowing down the strategy agreed in Lisbon, in Gothenburg and in Stockholm, to restore confidence to the European markets and thereby speed up our growth with a very clear objective, highlighted in the first paragraph: increasing job creation, which is a necessary condition if we are to compensate for ageing and maintain our social model.
On financial markets we are essentially in agreement. We welcome the efforts in the field of taxation and we would ask for further effort in order to achieve VAT at source and a consolidated basis in taxes on companies and we ask for stricter representation of the euro in international fora and a denomination of energies in this currency.
Thank you very much, Commissioner, I hope that the message is clear and that it is well received. Thanks once again to all the groups and the President for their patience.
Secondly, I would like to point out three strict limits to demand policies, which are included in the policy in the short term: to maintain macroeconomic stability, to maintain European competitiveness in an increasingly globalised world and to reduce public debt, in order to free up resources which must be destined towards investment and to create resources for future social needs.
The second of these key ideas is to increase coordination; we therefore welcome the strategies aimed at jointly examining the economic guidelines and the employment guidelines, but we would also like to integrate budgetary policies and supply policies, which remain in national hands, in order to create a framework which could provide a basis for the discussion of budgets, both European Union and national budgets.
In the field of monetary policy, which is the next section, the report stresses that the European Central Bank must closely follow the evolution of prices, in view of the underlying inflation in the services sector. But it says something further. It says that everybody else, particularly the national governments, must do their duties: they must maintain the evolution of salaries linked to productivity, introduce measures in terms of the transparency of prices and reform their structures in order to increase productivity, in order to give the European Central Bank a margin, an additional margin, in the event that it is considered necessary to reduce interest rates, particularly if we want to bring interest rates into line with European export needs.
In the field of budgetary policy, the message seems to me to be equally clear. This Parliament is stressing its commitment, which it has always maintained, to the Stability and Growth Pact. Secondly, it welcomes the Commission’s efforts to interpret this pact, to assess the budgetary situation of each Member State, taking account of volume of debt and quality of expenditure, particularly when it is investment expenditure, which is coherent with the Lisbon, Stockholm and Gothenburg strategies.
Thirdly, it regrets the lack of application, the lack of diligence of those prodigal governments which, while running the risk of excessive deficit, do not appear to want to make any effort to reduce structural deficits. And finally, as an express appeal to the Commission, it urges it to play a more vigilant role at times of boom in order to ride out the storm at a later date.
With regard to structural reform policy, we stress that the lack of investment is key, and is the most definitive explanation of our lagging behind the United States, particularly investment in new technologies. We therefore call for the establishment in the economic guidelines of quantified objectives in the field of public and private investment and for the promotion of investment by the private sector in these technologies, essentially by means of the tax deductions, linked to obtaining profits rather than subsidies, since we have no very clear idea of which activities those subsidies are used for. We call for a new industrial policy, because people cannot live on services alone, as well as an effort in the field of renewable energies, on which I do not need to insist given the international climate.
In the field of small and medium-sized businesses, the Commission is urged to continue with the objectives of the Feira Charter, to facilitate their creation within 24 hours by means of new technologies, to advocate a postponement of taxes during the early years of operation, to simplify their operation, particularly in an administrative sense, and to exercise strict vigilance in the field of funding in the Basilea II negotiations, to stress the role of the European Investment Fund and to establish a network of guarantees which allows them access to the markets.
In the field of the liberalisation of the markets, transposition and therefore stressing the penalty mechanisms for States which do not comply, increasing competition in the privatised sectors, liberalising energy networks and particularly their connection."@en1
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