Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-28-Speech-3-022-000"
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"en.20110928.3.3-022-000"2
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".
Mr President, Mr Barroso, the European Union is undergoing its most serious crisis since it was first founded. This is something that we definitely all agree on. It is, of course, all about the economic, financial and debt crisis, about Greece and about the euro. The Member States and the European Union have not put in place sufficiently effective regulation of the financial markets. As a result, the policy is likely to end up at the mercy of the speculators.
The measures which have been taken so far are aimed at budgetary consolidation by means of cutting spending. In concrete terms this primarily means reducing social security budgets. It means cuts in salaries and benefits, rising unemployment, falling public investment and a drop in real economic growth. More and more decisions are being taken on an intergovernmental basis without prior agreement with parliaments, but instead in agreement with bank bosses. As a result, the European Union is increasingly losing confidence and support. The eurosceptics are gaining ground and that is a fact. The European Union is in the midst of a crisis of political credibility. I believe that we are all of the same opinion in this respect.
Mr Barroso, we do not entirely agree either on the analysis of the causes of the crisis or on the best ways of resolving it. Despite the need for criticism, I would like to emphasise that we on the left are aware of our responsibility for the European Union. The idea of European unity is a left-wing idea which has been defended by many left-wingers past and present. We will continue to defend this idea in the future and we will make sure that it is not surrendered to the profit interests of the markets and the speculators.
I am convinced that Europe needs much more cooperation, rather than a further withdrawal into national interest. Europe needs a jointly coordinated, democratically legitimate, economic, fiscal and social policy based on solidarity. Therefore, we will support you, Mr Barroso, when you finally present the promised legislative proposals, which have been called for by Parliament, as the first steps towards comprehensive regulation of the financial markets, taxation of financial market transactions and Eurobonds in order to reaffirm the principle of solidarity in the European Union.
We will continue to emphasise the value of solidarity between states and between people and the urgent need for it. Solidarity does not just involve financial aid. It also involves resisting the governments’ mania for austerity measures. As the main representative of a genuine European institution, you should be able to support our call for a step back from this culture of austerity.
The fact that the social divide within society is growing much wider also seems ominous to me. The politicians are focusing on saving the banks and making available credit facilities of hundreds of billions of euros. However, the ordinary people are being left to pick up the tab for the failed policy of deregulation and privatisation. Huge austerity programmes are being imposed on them, they have to work longer hours and their wages and benefits are being cut. They are at the mercy of the governments’ austerity programmes.
Social justice is simply being trampled underfoot and we cannot go on like this. The mass demonstrations in Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain are making this quite clear.
Finally, I would like to say that either we will take a joint route out of the crisis based on solidarity, which will allow the EU to emerge from the crisis in a better, more social, more sustainable and even more democratic form, or there will be no solution for the EU as a whole, with damaging after-effects that are hard to predict."@en1
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