Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-12-15-Speech-3-025"
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"en.20101215.5.3-025"2
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"Mr President, in the Council and the Commission there are many who believe that we can only succeed in the global economy if we downgrade workers’ rights, our collective bargaining systems and our pensions. In other words we must dilute, we are told, our social model. Public finances are to be reorganised with the single focus of bringing public debt down to an arbitrary 60% of GDP, and deficits are basically to be ruled out.
That is the same Council which, if I remember well, agreed on a Europe 2020 Strategy, but it does not seem to care where the money to fulfil that strategy will come from. If we have to significantly cut our public debt year on year, if we have to avoid deficits above 1%, which the Commission proposes, and if we have to do all of this in a low-growth environment with high unemployment, how can we possibly deliver on the 2020 Strategy?
This is a wrong-headed economic strategy of cost competitiveness and extreme fiscal austerity and it will set Europe on a declining path at a crucial moment in its history. President Barroso is not here at the moment, but I think he needs to tell the Council that it needs to redefine the political agenda in at least three areas.
First, we must complete Economic and Monetary Union by creating a European stability agency for common eurobonds and I am glad that President Barroso did not rule out the idea of eurobonds today. This will end speculative attacks, bring liquidity to the market for government debt and cut the overall cost of debt for the eurozone.
Second, we must rebalance the proposed legislation on economic governance. We agree that fiscal discipline will require strong rules and strong implementation, but we must also align this with the proper implementation of the Europe 2020 objectives in each country, and that must be reflected in the legislation.
Finally, we need new public financing sources. The crisis has wiped out years of budgetary efforts. A financial transactions tax is well overdue, and it is a scandal that the Council seems to be frozen in the headlights and unable to make a decision on this tax. These are the reforms we need urgently."@en1
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