Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-17-Speech-2-078"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20080617.5.2-078"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Thank you for the opportunity to speak. A great moment has arrived, since Parliament, and later on the Council in the formal legal sense, are about to decide whether the first of the former Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) and Warsaw Pact countries will be admitted to the single currency area. I congratulate Mr Casa, the rapporteur, for doing a splendid, outstanding job.
I am delighted that Slovakia has fulfilled all the criteria set out in quantitative terms in the EC Treaty as conditions for admission to the euro zone. This achievement is the result of ten years’ work. I believe it is important only to voice an opinion on whether the applicant country has fulfilled the criteria, because otherwise we discriminate among Member States on the basis of whether they joined the euro zone earlier or will do so in future. Loosely defined sustainability criteria – notably with regard to inflation or debt – or real convergence cannot be the subject of separate quantitative analysis in the report, since all Member States in the euro zone, must be trusted equally from the moment they join to implement sustainability. This is especially the case if the Member State in question has a low and falling level of debt compared to its fellow euro club members. This is a vital question for the future enlargement process.
The Slovak Government is taking on a huge responsibility. As soon as its exchange rate is frozen, in other words from July onwards, it must demonstrate that it is not only concerned with its own membership of the euro zone but also carries responsibility for the other countries in the region. In view of this, Slovakia must use all means at its disposal to keep inflation under control, in other words within the reference limit. In doing so it will demonstrate that the understandable and justifiable fears expressed by several Members of this House and the European Central Bank (ECB) – namely that after the massive shift in the central exchange rate occurs, Bratislava may unable or unwilling to keep the brakes on the inflationary pressure resulting from import prices and from closing the price gap – are not compounded by an irresponsible attitude.
Furthermore, this is not the time or the place to address other unresolved issues relating to enlargement of the euro zone. Issues such as ensuring that applicant countries submit their request in time, defining what we mean by discipline concerning the timeframe between the Commission forming an opinion and a decision being reached, or defining the notion of real convergence, or how long we can realistically expect exchange rate stability to be maintained in the event of appreciation, must be addressed separately. These issues should not be addressed here, in a selective and discriminatory way, and this is why I am abstaining today from voting on these issues. Thank you, Mr President, for the opportunity to speak."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples