Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-07-06-Speech-3-096-000"
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"en.20110706.3.3-096-000"2
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"Mr President, I want to thank Ms Berès and the shadow rapporteurs for this very comprehensive report. I would also like to thank the Chair of the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis, Wolf Klinz, who has so effectively guided the work of this special committee since its establishment in October 2009. The scope of your work has been enormous, but your method of tackling it has been similarly impressive, resulting in a thorough analysis and a broad set of conclusions.
Regarding your call for the Commission to present a report on Eurobonds, in the context of the economic governance package, the Commission has agreed to table such a report on the feasibility of eurosecurities towards the end of the year. These eurosecurities would aim to strengthen fiscal discipline and increase stability, as well as ensuring, by taking advantage of the increase in liquidity, that Member States enjoying the highest credit standards would not suffer from higher interest rates. This issue really has to be seen as part of the overall governance reform that will materialise through the adoption of the package.
I appreciate your support for improving the European Union’s role as a global player in the context of the G20, the IMF and other elements of global governance. I am also glad that you have paid particular attention in your report to the issues of competitiveness and convergence, and sustainable growth and jobs. The paramount importance of growth policies cannot be overstated in relation to tackling the crisis.
To conclude, I trust the Commission and Parliament share the view that a convincing response to this crisis and the effective prevention of future crises will require stronger, broader and earlier coordination at European level. This is at the heart of the economic governance package. In my view, the first concrete reaction to the final report of the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis, as prepared by Ms Berès, must be the speediest possible adoption of the package. It does not yet mean completion of the economic and monetary union but it is certainly a very big step in that direction – and it is essential to restore confidence in the European project of deeper integration and an ever-closer union.
Although this final report represents the completion of the committee’s mandate, it will be important to ensure that its work receives the appropriate follow-up. From the Commission’s side, I can assure you that we will pay very close attention to this.
Obviously, I cannot comment here in detail on every one of the 108 paragraphs, but let me make some general remarks. First of all, we continue to be primarily preoccupied with the urgent measures to tackle the sovereign debt crisis because we are, of course, not out of the woods yet. We are working to put public finances back on a sound footing and to address the extraordinary challenges presented by the situation in Greece.
At the same time, we need to put in place an institutional and legislative framework which will prevent a repetition of the events of the last three years. In this context, let me thank all those who have worked intelligently and hard on the economic governance package over the past year. I can only regret that the Council and Parliament have not yet been able to reach a final agreement on it. The conclusion of the governance reform is badly needed to show that Europe has the capacity to act, and thus to restore confidence in our economic prospects.
The adoption of the package is fundamental to our response to the crisis: to strengthening and giving teeth to our economic policy coordination, in terms of both prevention and correction; to achieving sound public finances; and to avoiding harmful macro-economic imbalances.
I firmly believe that 99% of this package has been agreed. The Council and Parliament have both made important improvements to our original proposals. Parliament has, for instance, codified the European Semester and set up a structured economic dialogue, providing for a prominent role for Parliament throughout the European Semester. It has created the opportunity for detailed discussion of country-specific situations at every stage of decision making, and it has obtained a commitment from the Commission to carry out a study on eurosecurities within six months of the entry into force of the legislation. The Commission will also commit itself, in the declaration accompanying the study, to reviewing the intergovernmental nature of the European Stabilisation Mechanism by mid-2014.
Honourable Members, you have won an equal role for Parliament in determining the scoreboard for detecting possible macro-economic imbalances. You have inserted firm guarantees on social dialogue, respect for national traditions in relation to collective agreements, wage formation and the role of social partners.
Yet it seems that this is not sufficient, and therefore it is not possible to conclude the legislative process before the summer break. That is very disappointing. I hope that the Council and Parliament will pull out all the stops to reach an acceptable compromise on the issues that still divide them, so that this package can enter into force as soon as possible.
Looking beyond the vote, I welcome the ambition and scope of the vision outlined in the report. I share the view that we must look further ahead and focus on the long-term implications of the crisis for the European project. I assume that a clear majority of all of us here agree that deeper economic integration will have to be part of the answer, despite current trends that appear to go in the opposite direction."@en1
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