Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-03-Speech-4-025"
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"en.20030703.2.4-025"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, Mr Gasòliba i Böhm, ladies and gentlemen, I would first like to thank the rapporteur not only for his work, but also for his willingness to enter into an open dialogue with the shadow rapporteurs from the other groups. This debate is a seamless continuation of the previous one. I believe that we should view all the arguments as a whole and not as an alternative to the report of the European Central Bank.
Right at the beginning of his explanatory statement, the rapporteur wrote the following: ‘Since its more than four years of existence, the euro has become the world's second leading currency’. The first reason, he says, is the size of the euro area economy, which accounts for around 16% of world GDP, in comparison with the United States' 21% and Japan's 8%. The second reason he refers to is the stability and growth orientation and economic and monetary union. Whilst his reasons are sound, these are of course also areas that we need to approach with great caution.
The euro area is growing. Since its inception we have already gained an additional member, Greece, and we must do our utmost to ensure that the Member States of the European Union are not divided into a eurozone and a non-eurozone, because the euro can make the single market our home market, and because we must do everything to strengthen the single market, to be better able to influence global political events and thus to increase the benefit to the Member States. This involves the new Member States meeting the Maastricht criteria, it involves strengthening the euro area, and it also involves adherence to the Stability and Growth Pact and the communitarisation of national economic policies.
It must be our objective for all the Member States of the European Union also to be members of the euro area, because only then can we fully exploit the potential of the single market and the single currency. However, this political objective presupposes political will on the part of the Member States and compliance with the criteria. In Paragraph 11 we have very clearly spelt out what is necessary to achieve this, that is to say achieving the Lisbon strategy, promoting a culture of entrepreneurship, stronger small and medium-sized enterprises, creative and innovative fiscal reforms, with protectionism outlawed and research and development promoted. If we can stick to what we have agreed we can then make the euro area even stronger, both internally and externally."@en1
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