Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-15-Speech-3-111"
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"en.20040915.6.3-111"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Group of the Greens warmly congratulates the Commission on its plans for reforming the Stability and Growth Pact and is delighted that the Council appears to have given it a warm welcome.
Starting with the Dublin and Amsterdam Councils, the Greens had taken the view that the Pact would, in time of recession, be neither applicable nor applied. That is what has come to pass. The Council imposed no sanction on the big countries when they went over the 3% threshold. Today, they account for 80% of Europe’s domestic product, and it is certain that, without this policy, Europe’s stagnation in 2003 would have turned into a recession.
At the same time, the United States, China, Japan and even the United Kingdom triggered global recovery by applying a budgetary policy that would have been prohibited in Europe.
There is indeed a need for reform of what President Prodi, two years ago, called ‘the stupid Pact’. Of the four recommendations that we made at that time, the Commission accepted three: to push for the restoration of a balanced budget only during periods of growth; to tolerate reasonable deficits during periods when growth is poor; to lay down monetary and budgetary rules as part of the governance of democratically debated broad economic policy guidelines.
We do, to be sure, regret the failure to consider our proposal to remove from the remaining deficits those investments in the areas covered by the Gothenburg and Kyoto targets: economy in energy, shared large-scale transport networks, and renewable energies.
However, we reject the idea that provisions for future expenditure, such as retirement pensions, should be included among debts from now on, for we need to bear in mind that, apart from the ageing process, the disruption of the climate is the most significant debt bequeathed to future generations.
If, though, the Council proceeds now to adopt the Commission’s proposals, it will demonstrate that the requirement for unanimity in twenty-five countries does not prevent necessary and intelligent reforms from being adopted. Today, our fellow-citizens need such evidence and we are grateful to you for it."@en1
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