Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-11-Speech-3-258"
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"en.20091111.21.3-258"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the problems in Latvia, Hungary and Romania, which are the three European Union countries that are currently receiving loans through the balance of payments facility, are problems that have not been created by this Parliament, or the European Commission, or the European Union. They are problems created by the economic crisis, but they have been aggravated by mismanagement and misguided policies undertaken by the political leaders of those countries. I say this because there are countries in the same region of the European Union as Latvia, in the same region of the European Union as Hungary, and in the same region of the European Union as Romania, which are not having the same problems, and which are doing a better job of tackling the crisis, with support from European budgets, through the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund, with the protection given by membership of the European Union and prospective membership of the euro, but without the need to ask for assistance from the balance of payments facility.
Why have these three countries had to ask for assistance? Why have we had to lend them money? It is not through the fault of the Commission or Parliament, or the European Union in general: it is because of mismanagement in those countries.
How are we helping them? We are doing so by lending them money; and nobody makes loans without conditions; we do not have the authorisation of this Parliament or of the Council to make loans without conditions. We are lending upon certain conditions, and we are imposing on those countries some conditions which are tough, because their situations are extraordinarily difficult, but we are saying to them: ‘do not make cuts in order to be able to cofinance the Structural Fund and the Cohesion Fund; do not adopt retrogressive measures; do not make cuts that damage the weakest’. Sometimes we are successful and sometimes, unfortunately, we are unsuccessful, because the matter is not in our hands, but in theirs.
Therefore, I share your concerns, and not only do I share them, but also, on behalf of all of you, I am passing them on to those governments at the same time as giving them money in the name of the European Union: EUR 3.1 billion of lending to Latvia, and very large amounts also to Romania and Hungary.
Please note this, however: nobody makes loans without conditions, and I am not authorised to do so on behalf of you, on behalf of the Member States. We cannot, for better or for worse, take decisions which are the responsibility of the governments and parliaments of those countries.
What we do do is to remind the governments and parliaments of those countries, firstly, of their responsibility for extricating their countries from a crisis which other countries are not suffering to such a serious extent; and secondly, that there are measures that cannot be taken, and we are not prepared to lend money so that measures are adopted that go beyond what is strictly necessary to adjust public finances and place those countries in a position to tackle their futures without the need to ask the European Union for loans."@en1
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