Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-12-13-Speech-2-027-000"
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"en.20111213.5.2-027-000"2
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"Mr President, Mr Van Rompuy, Mr Barroso, ladies and gentlemen, the EU summit was supposed to bring about a breakthrough in the process of resolving the international financial crisis. It has undoubtedly not succeeded in doing so, because too many issues have been ignored and there has been a one-sided focus on reducing public debt and budgetary supervision. Even much of this was very unspecific. It may have given us a breathing space, but nothing more.
The much-talked-about confidence of the markets cannot be regained by imposing an austerity policy based on the German model. The causes of the financial crisis are varied in nature, but the failure of independent bodies and, most importantly, the political system to manage or monitor the unregulated financial markets is the decisive factor. If we apply this standard, it is clear that the leading politicians of the 27 EU Member States once again did not want or were unable to take action.
Increasing the financial power of the instruments which are intended to prevent speculation by bringing forward by one year the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) that amounts to EUR 500 billion, by continuing in parallel with the European Financial Stability Facility, and by extending the involvement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with EUR 200 billion, will only guarantee that the banks will have their loans repaid and make a healthy profit on the interest. This is how the governments of the euro countries want to play the game with the financial markets, but they forget that they are in the weaker position. Most importantly, the failed attempt to leverage the rescue funds demonstrates the power and the powerlessness of the policy.
The main opponent within the EU of regulating the international financial markets has gone into self-imposed isolation. Hopefully, decisive action will now be taken to tackle this problem, at least within the euro area and the EU Member States which want to join the euro. The first step must be to implement the international transaction tax quickly. Next, the most dangerous new financial products must simply be banned. This also applies to the activities of the shadow banks. The European Union can and must make progress and set an example in this area. If EU banks try to evade regulation in other parts of the world, they will be threatened with the removal of state rescue packages in the case of a crisis.
Their business can ultimately be placed under state supervision or they can be nationalised. This would be an appropriate response to a systemic crisis. The consequences of the international crisis, which has been going on since 2008, are already unbearable for the vast majority of citizens. Young people’s plans for the future, provisions for the working population and the life’s work of millions of people have already been destroyed, with the most serious impact being felt, of course, in the crisis countries of Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy. However, the citizens of all EU countries are affected by the excessive austerity measures. They are the culmination of the neoliberal policy of deregulation and privatisation and the redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top. This policy over the last 15 years is what has taken us into the crisis and, therefore, it must be stopped and reversed.
We can only ensure that public interests are served and that the welfare state is maintained by restraining blind market forces. Austerity measures will not stimulate growth and will not lead us out of the crisis."@en1
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