Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-15-Speech-3-113"
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"en.20040915.6.3-113"2
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"Mr President, it is clear that the larger eurozone governments have no intention of tying their hands by promising to adhere to the 3% deficit limit. One would not expect them to. The Stability Pact is rather like the common fisheries policy: every country has an interest in other countries keeping to the rules but in not being restricted itself.
The fisheries policy is not working very well, nor is the Stability Pact, but – to maintain the pretence – we are now going to have a more flexible pact taking into account economic growth rates and country-specific circumstances. It sounds like a good idea, but in practice all these criteria depend on judgment, as Mr Almunia has just explained. All it will mean in the end is that a country having trouble sticking to the rules of the pact does not have to. A flexible rule ceases to be a rule.
The root of the problem is that there is no credible means of enforcement; there never has been. It was always ridiculous to suppose that a government having trouble paying its bills could be punished by imposing a fine; yet, as the European Central Bank points out, sound fiscal policies are vital for the euro.
There are many examples of what happens to fixed exchange rate regimes when governments do not keep their budgets in order. An EMU is just a sophisticated form of a fixed exchange rate. Argentina is the most recent case of such a collapse. The problem could of course be solved by much greater control of national budgets, but that does not seem very feasible right now. Certainly we in Britain would not like to see Brussels running our Treasury.
Let me end on a positive note. I can only say how thankful I am that Britain has not joined the euro ...
... and as the weakness of the Stability Pact becomes more obvious, the chances of us ever joining are becoming more and more remote."@en1
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"Whittaker (IND/DEM )."1
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