Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-06-16-Speech-3-011"
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"en.20100616.4.3-011"2
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"Mr President, Mr López Garrido, Mr Barroso, ladies and gentlemen, people often speak of a global crisis, but the emerging markets, with an average growth of almost 10% over a number of years, are not in crisis – and good for them. In fact, they are experiencing rapid growth.
The Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) is waiting to see if the European Council has the courage to answer these two questions frankly.
With 3% growth this year, even the United States, which – let us not forget – caused the crisis in confidence in the markets sparked off by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, and which was the result of excessive deregulation, is on the road back to growth.
In these conditions, we need to call a spade a spade and to speak of a European crisis rather than a global crisis. This weekend’s European Council must provide short- and long-term answers to the question of how we can remedy this crisis. Short-term answers involve reducing budget deficits – this is going well, and I congratulate the countries that have already done it – and also greater coordination between the Member States as regards budgetary, fiscal and social matters.
Long-term answers involve massive investments in priority sectors, namely education, training, research and innovation, and the 2020 strategy, which will be voted on by this Parliament and, I hope, ratified by the Council. I hope that this time, there will be financial coordination here, because a crisis – however negative it may be, especially for those Europeans who are fearing for their savings accounts or their jobs, and who we must reassure at any cost – can and must provide an opportunity for reconsidering the habits, behaviour and automatic reflexes that we have inherited from a time when we believed that anything was possible, regardless of the price.
Alarm bells are ringing for Europe, and everyone knows that the sound of an alarm is not always pleasant. If the Heads of State or Government, more concerned with preserving their popularity ratings than serving the general interest, are content to come out with piecemeal measures or announcements made for effect, this will have as much effect as switching off an alarm at the first ring without getting up. If, on the other hand, our leaders really take the measure of the problem and listen to the appeal by the European Parliament, the Commission and the President of the European Council to act in a cooperative and large-scale manner, we will give the 500 million European citizens new confidence in their future.
I hope that they will work in this spirit this afternoon or tomorrow, because what we are dealing with here is a crisis of confidence, the undermining of confidence by the markets – partly correctly, as we have lived beyond our means for too long, but partly incorrectly and in an irresponsibly febrile manner.
My group would ask the Member States, and their executives and parliaments, to understand that subjecting their budgets to debate prior to adopting them is a sign of European solidarity and not a crime against sovereignty. Similarly, if we have a debate among the 27 before deciding individually on the social measures we take – working hours, age of retirement – or the fiscal policy instruments we implement, this does not undermine the independence of the Member States. We cannot ask for solidarity when things are going badly – something which we are no longer able to do anyway – while refusing even to have a dialogue among ourselves on our respective public finances.
If this crisis is to teach us anything, it should be that. In summary, then: we need less of an intergovernmental approach and more of a Community approach. We are repeating this here, President-in-Office of the Council, as we believe we are talking to deaf people. We must have more of a Community approach, and we will come out of the crisis together. We also need to have less of a national and more of a European approach, and we will have more of a collective vision. This does not mean that Strasbourg or Brussels will decide everything. It quite simply means that our Member States will finally be able to make use of the European policies and reactive measures necessary to make the euro a stronger, healthier and also a more stable currency.
Ladies and gentlemen, the European project is coming to a moment of truth which requires clear answers to two simple questions. What do we actually want to do jointly? We must make a serious decision on this and do it jointly. What financial resources do we want to invest in this project, and do we want to waste these resources by everyone spending them in their own areas, or do we want to mutualise them to ensure a better result at a lower cost to the taxpayer?"@en1
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