Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-13-Speech-2-037"
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"en.20090113.5.2-037"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, after 10 years, the growing space carved out by the euro in international trade and its use as a reserve currency show that it has become a world benchmark. It has guaranteed monetary stability and has helped integrate the economies of the Member States that have adopted it, despite some errors of judgment that created problems for citizens both because of the actual exchange rates between national currencies and the euro and because of the few checks subsequently carried out on the prices of goods and services.
The euro was created without being imposed from outside and without any wars of conquest or political hegemonies. It was the result of the free coming together of 11 governments who believed in the creation of an economic and monetary union, as laid down in the Treaties, as an essential step in attempting to achieve the political union that still unfortunately remains out of our grasp.
Some problems that have occurred are due to inefficiencies in a system that was unprepared for the task of guiding the other great associated phenomenon; I am talking about the increasing pace of internationalisation and the great changes in the way trade is conducted at international level. The euro has made it possible to face up to a series of difficulties, the most severe of which is the current financial crisis, and it has protected us against the great stresses that have ravaged the markets. Were it not for the euro, we would have repeated the experience of 1992, only worse.
We mark this 10th anniversary by warmly welcoming the entrance of Slovakia, the 16th country to join the euro area. The measures introduced by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Commission to combat the current crisis have acted as a buffer and a form of containment but we still maintain, as we have often done in this Chamber, that we find it inconceivable to have a monetary policy disconnected from economic policy. Admittedly, the actual situation is somewhat anomalous: 16 Member States with the single currency, 27 national economic policies coordinated by the Commission as well as it can, and 11 Member States with national currencies.
Coordinating a monetary policy with an economic policy that does not actually exist is certainly no mean feat, but if the institutions responsible for economic policies in our countries do not communicate with the central banks and the ECB, which has to pull all those policies together, and vice versa, the European Union will find new difficulties in jointly facing up to the current crisis and also the continual challenges that the outside world and globalisation bring home to us.
We hope that recent experiences convince people of the need to face up to change in Europe, restoring the real economy to the centre and ensuring better cohesion and connection between the ECB and the European institutions responsible for laying down political and planning strategy. The very recent energy crisis has also shown us that a common economic policy on the main strategic topics is of vital interest to the public and cannot be delayed. If the political will is present, the introduction of such a policy will be facilitated by the growing power of the euro."@en1
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