Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-02-15-Speech-2-429-000"
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"en.20110215.25.2-429-000"2
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"Mr President, it is a letter addressed to you personally, not to the Chamber.
Treaty modifications are always complex, even simplified ones. What we are discussing here shows that we are in an extremely difficult situation. The term ‘simplified procedure’ conceals the fact that it is possible for this type of procedure to fail. It can fail here and also elsewhere. We have been told that if it fails, we will be in a very difficult position. Therefore, we need to ask ourselves once again what we can do to ensure that it does not fail. It is true that we are being listened to. Whether just the ratification procedure fails or also the euro project as a whole will depend on the determination of the Heads of Government to take coherent and united action. A lot of valid remarks have already been made in this respect.
I would like to add three points which are of fundamental importance. Today, a year after the start of this serious crisis, I would like to ask you what the external value of our currency is. The answer to that question is USD 1.35. When the euro was first introduced, the same figure was USD 1.17. Now it has reached USD 1.35. The value of an international currency is based on its external value. Over the last year, the external value of the euro has been highly stable. However, the internal structure of the euro is not at all stable. This is because of the wildly ambiguous attitude and the double standards of the Heads of State or Government.
The problem is not that Europe cannot act in a consistent way. After all, the instruments are in place. The problem is that Europe cannot agree on a consistent procedure. When we say that Europe cannot agree, we should also add ‘not those of us here’. It is not the European Parliament or the Commission; it is the governments of the sovereign Member States which have created a strong monetary area that is able to take external action, but which are not prepared to create the self-contained, internal instruments needed to establish a strong economic and social policy and a strong government policy alongside the strong currency. That is the crucial point.
Secondly, everything that happens in Europe takes place in the context of the treaties. However, when something happens within the treaties and we do not want to create something arbitrarily outside the bounds of the treaties, because some people are considering doing this, it is clear to the European Parliament that the institution at the heart of this must be the central institution within the framework of the treaties, namely the Commission. The democratic legitimacy of our actions at European level, in direct relation to the European Parliament, is determined by the Commission. This is why what you have explained is right, in the same way as what the rapporteurs, Mr Brok and Mr Gualtieri, have also said.
My third point is that the risk for Europe lies in the fact that it is strong when it acts in a consistent way as the largest economic area in the world, with 500 million inhabitants, but if it allows itself to break down into 27 individual parts, it becomes irrelevant. Regrettably, this became clear during the events on the other side of the Mediterranean. If Europe does not take a consistent line, then it has no role to play. If it takes a consistent line, then with its social and economic model, it will become the engine of the global economy and an influential partner on the international political stage.
The issue that we are discussing in the context of this simplified procedure concerns whether Europe has a future or whether it will break down into individual states and descend into unimportance and irrelevance. That is the point which we are debating."@en1
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