Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-08-Speech-3-036"
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"en.20081008.14.3-036"2
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".
Madam President, President-in-Office of the Council, President of the Commission, for several weeks now we have been watching global panic and unbearable losses, against a dizzying background of billions of spiralling euros and dollars.
This has been generated by a system in the name of which European leaders have for years been recommending moderation on pay and caution on social expenditure, and have allowed inequalities to soar. These same leaders are now flying to the rescue of the banks to refloat them, before putting them back in the private sector, while announcing a long period of recession and sacrifices for the general population.
Many people following these events, totally stunned, cannot help but see a lesson in them, not about excess, Mr Watson, but about the very essence of capitalism in all its injustice and brutality, whatever the phenomenal transformations it has undergone over the last few decades. I think European leaders are going to have some explaining to do to our fellow citizens. Consider your responsibilities rather than seeking to challenge universal suffrage in Ireland, or anywhere else.
Today, I just want to make three immediate, good-sense proposals to deal with the most pressing issues while opening the way for a real change of political orientation. In the first place, I think we should not skimp when it comes to reassuring small and medium savers who are legitimately concerned about their modest assets. The announcement about this was, I think, late, timid and woolly. On 15 October, the whole of the European Council needs to formally provide an absolute guarantee for deposits throughout European Union territory.
Secondly, a rudimentary awareness of ethics as much as a simple concern for effectiveness should prevent sorcerers' apprentices from profiting now or in future from the public intervention made necessary by the collapse caused by their irrational exuberance. That is why every government should, or in any case should be able to, compensate for the aid given to financial institutions in peril, through the lasting nationalisation of their healthy assets. The purpose of this would be to set up a public financial sector, in the future, devoted entirely to financing socially worthwhile investment, particularly the kind that creates jobs.
Thirdly, and more generally, the real economy must be assisted with an ambitious new credit policy. This concerns the EIB as much as the ECB. The EIB, to start with, should be given the responsibility and resources for achieving the task of guaranteeing SMEs access to all the credit they need to develop production, provided that real, properly paid jobs are created and the rights of their employees are respected. In this regard, the decision taken to assist SMEs by providing EUR 30 billion within three years is worthwhile, but I feel the amount is too low and the timescale too long. In France alone, SMEs need EUR 60 billion a year, and there are twenty-seven countries in the EU. Furthermore, it is now that they need the oxygen in many cases. Later may be too late.
As for the ECB, surely it is now or never that we must ask it to adapt its role to the vital needs of the economy and our companies by directing money not to the financial markets, but to the real economy? It has an instrument for doing this, and we do not understand why it is adamant about not using it. The instrument is selective credit, which is very expensive if it is used for financial operations, but is very accessible when it encourages jobs, training and all the worthwhile investments.
I am aware that some of these proposals are not very orthodox. So what? Instead of orthodox politics in a collapsing EU, I prefer the idea of reactive, creative politics serving the renewal of Europe and a life of dignity for Europeans."@en1
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