Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-14-Speech-3-011-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20110914.3.3-011-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we are in the midst of a serious crisis which is threatening the process of European integration. We need to be completely clear about this.
The calls from the United States, Japan and China, our global economic competitors, to the European Union for more unity and more budgetary discipline are not acts of charity and sympathy by the Americans and the Chinese on our behalf. They are a way of expressing the fear that the collapse of the eurozone would drag the world economy into the abyss. This is why those people who want to make state bankruptcies into a self-fulfilling prophecy, because their own party is bankrupt, are playing with fire which we may well not be able to put out. For this reason, I am firmly convinced that if we act jointly and continue along the path of stabilising the eurozone that we have already taken, and if the heads of government who have made that decision are supported within their own countries and by their coalition parties, we have a chance of stabilising the euro.
The citizens of Europe want transparent policies and they want to know where their fate is being discussed. At a European level, the Council of Heads of State or Government is debating the fate of 500 million people behind closed doors. This Parliament is the institution which must make public the debate about the fate of the people of Europe. If we have economic governance, then this House is the economic parliament. That is the job that we have to do here. I am not afraid of entering into a new battle. Please tell your friend, Mr Vincent-Rostowski, that Europe is strong enough. If the pro-Europeans stand together, we have a good chance of coming out of this crisis in a stronger position.
The Heads of State or Government of the eurozone countries agreed on 21 July to take measures which we all believed would demonstrate that the eurozone cannot be split up and would also show that we are taking bold, joint action, which is coming late, but hopefully not too late. Subsequently, these same heads of government in many of the eurozone countries had to fight for the political survival of their governments, among other things because of the measures that they had taken.
The problem not only concerns the weakness of the euro. Most importantly, it concerns the weakness of those people who are supposed to be managing the euro. Consequently, much of what you say, Mr Barroso, is right, but in the case of those responsible for managing the euro it appears to be falling on deaf ears. They seem to me to be like Buridan’s ass. It also stood between two piles of hay and could not decide which one it should eat from. It ended up starving to death.
The president of the German Bundesbank, Mr Weidmann, has rightly said that we have reached the time of either-or. Either everyone must act for themselves and against all the others or everyone must work together and take joint action to support our strong currency. The middle way, which most countries always seem to choose and which involves a partial commitment and a yes-and-no, wait-and-see approach, will bring the euro to the point of collapse.
Therefore, we need committed, joint action involving the European Union institutions. We need economic governance for the European Union which will ensure that all our policies are coherent. By this I mean all the policies both inside and outside the eurozone. You are right that the euro is open to everyone. The stability criteria apply not only to the eurozone countries but also to those outside. The institution which will ensure that all the policies across the EU are coherent is not Herman Van Rompuy, but the European Commission, monitored by and linked to the European Parliament.
This should mean the end of the debate on the institutions, because we cannot afford to continue it now that we are in a situation where the social structure of Europe is under serious threat.
We are also in favour of the golden rule. We are in favour of budgetary discipline, because there is absolutely no alternative to this. However, it must be fair. At a time when salaries and pensions are being cut and sales taxes are being increased, I read in the newspaper that the bonuses of bankers in all the Member States within the eurozone have returned to their 2008 levels. That is not fair. This is why I believe that the rich must contribute more than the poor. We will not be able to impose budgetary discipline throughout Europe if everyone has the feeling that the ordinary people always have to pay and take the risks and that those who are really wealthy can shirk their responsibilities by sending their money to the remaining tax havens, for example. This is part of the economic governance ‘six-pack’ which also needs to be regulated."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples