Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-06-16-Speech-3-009"
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"en.20100616.4.3-009"2
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"Mr President, I believe that the European Council meeting on 17 June could be one of the most important in recent EU history.
At the same time, the second major aspect of the strategy is what we could describe as measures to prevent future financial crises. We know that this crisis was triggered by a financial crisis, which originally arose in the United States and showed that there was insufficient regulation of the financial markets in the United States or the European Union.
There has therefore been a concern in the Union from the start to move towards genuine regulation of the financial markets and supervision by European authorities of the functioning of financial services. This is what is expressed in various regulations that were put forward by the Commission, including during the presidency preceding the Spanish Presidency, which are currently being negotiated in this House between the Council and Parliament.
I would like to take this opportunity – as I have on several occasions – to ask Parliament on behalf of the Council to adopt a constructive approach and attitude, which it does have. This will mean that a final agreement can be achieved sooner rather than later on this financial supervision package, which is absolutely essential and would send a very clear message to the public and to the markets in the European Union at this time.
In conjunction with all of the above, there is a very important debate to be held in the Council and at the G20 meeting in Toronto: the debate on taxes on the financial system. There is the bank levy, which will be the subject of the debate, and there is also a plan for the G20 meeting in Toronto, which will be mentioned later, and even a debate on a tax on international financial transactions. All of this is part of what I call the preventive measures for the financial system: the system for financial regulation by the European Union.
There is a third dimension to this whole strategy, which is important: sustainable growth and the creation of high-quality employment. It is what we have called the Europe 2020 strategy, which is based on a very important communication from the Commission that has already been examined by the Council on several occasions, culminating in its adoption this week. In the strategy, the Council proposes that the European Union should implement all the tools at its disposal for the purpose of this growth strategy. These tools include the internal market, based on an important report produced by Mr Monti for President Barroso at his request. In short, it is about achieving something that has, to some extent, been lost in recent times in the EU: competitiveness. The 2020 strategy aims to solve the EU’s competitiveness problem, and sets a few goals to that end. I hope that the five headline targets, including education and combating poverty, will be definitively quantified at this European Council meeting.
Now, the strategy has to be put into practice by each of the Member States.
Finally, the fourth fundamental element of this economic strategy that the Council is going to firmly establish as a major political and economic strategy for the next few years is what is known as the economic governance of the Union. This is a fundamental element. Governance is the specific focus of the work of the task force chaired by Mr Van Rompuy. Economic governance is also the focus of specific proposals on the subject from the Commission presented on 12 May by Commissioner Rehn, who is here today. These proposals have a fundamental objective, which is the coordination of economic policies throughout the European Union.
All of these fundamental aspects, culminating in the economic governance of the Union, represent an historic and, in our view, vital step that the Council must ratify and consolidate. It is, of course, a definite step towards economic union: not only monetary union but genuine economic union. We left the monetary union on its own years ago, but there was never really an economic union, and that is what we are talking about establishing: a real European economic union.
In addition to this vital objective, as you know, the European Council is also going to discuss other matters. For example, it is going to discuss the unitary EU approach and Europe’s position in relation to the G20 in Toronto, which will be the subject of a debate later this morning here in this House. It will also discuss other issues that will be the subjects of debates in the European Council that will surely be much shorter but no less important, such as the Millennium Development Goals.
For the first time, development cooperation issues will go to a European Council meeting. This has never happened before in the history of the EU. The Council will discuss the issue of combating climate change, with a view to the Cancún conference, during this intermediary transitional period prior to the conference; it will also discuss the issue of Iran, based on a draft declaration prepared by the Foreign Affairs Council held on Monday in Luxembourg; and it will also note the progress achieved in the application of the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum.
It is a European Council meeting that is the culmination of a whole series of actions and measures adopted by the European Union in recent months to combat the economic crisis. These have not only been measures to combat the crisis in an immediate way with what we might call defensive measures against the most damaging effects of the crisis on the European public and private economies and on the financial system. They have also been measures that look further towards the medium and long term in order to bring us out of the crisis so that Europe can consolidate its economic position and its position in the world and the European project as a whole can therefore be strengthened, as it has been deeply affected by this crisis. Consequently, we are talking about an issue that affects the European project and not just a specific economic situation.
I would also like to say that at this European Council meeting, the start of the negotiations concerning Iceland’s accession to the EU will be discussed. It will also discuss the prospect of Estonia joining the euro area, and a decision will be adopted on convening the intergovernmental conference that will adopt the draft amendment to Protocol 36 to the treaty on increasing the number of Members of the European Parliament in what remains of this parliamentary term.
So, in recent months, the European Union has been adopting measures. Firstly, in order to combat the economic recession and the collapse of the financial system, it has been preparing an economic strategy for the future to bring us out of the crisis. At the same time, it has been suggesting to the Member States that there is a need for sustainable taxation and fiscal consolidation for the future. I believe that this whole series of EU measures and actions in recent months will take on a structured form at this European Council meeting on 17 June. It is a one-day meeting that is very dense in content, and the essential element will undoubtedly be the prospect of emerging from the crisis and strengthening the European Union.
For this European Council meeting, these two aspects – on the one hand, the immediate measures to protect the stability of the euro area essentially and also of some European countries, for example, the aid to Greece; on the other, there is the reflection regarding Europe’s economic future and the European economic strategy for the future – which, at times, have been operating separately, have come together and definitively taken on a single form. What the European Council is proposing is an economic strategy for the next decade in Europe, combining absolutely essential fiscal consolidation and a strategy for growth and the creation of high-quality employment.
All of this is part of a strategy to come out of the crisis, which therefore has a more short-term dimension, but also a medium- and long-term dimension.
The Council’s strategic approach to exiting the crisis essentially has four aspects. All of them are absolutely essential in order for the European Union and its project to emerge strongly from the crisis, and be consolidated and strengthened by combating this devastating crisis, the like of which, of course, none of us has ever seen, and which we could almost say has not been seen in the past century.
Firstly, the European Union is clearly proposing fiscal consolidation which, in turn, will involve budgetary discipline, so there are a whole series of austerity plans in place which have been adopted by a very high percentage of European countries. These plans are also being aided by the financial stability measures implemented by the European Central Bank, which is part of the first essential element of this economic strategy to bring the European Union out of the crisis.
In this case, there is a European Commission position, and the Commission has considered the different scenarios. It is talking to each of the Member States – for example, it was doing so recently: only yesterday – about the European Union’s monitoring of the adjustment plans of the different Member States and the procedures that a large majority of Member States have in place in relation to the Stability and Growth Pact: excessive deficit procedures.
We have therefore clearly established in the Council’s conclusions the need for fiscal consolidation among the EU Member States and, consequently, for a fiscal sustainability strategy which, as a whole, generally goes as far as 2013. That is when the objectives laid down in the Treaty of Maastricht will have to be achieved."@en1
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