Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-23-Speech-2-087-000"
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"en.20121023.5.2-087-000"2
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".
Mr President, President Van Rompuy, I would like to start with the same issue that you began with, namely the European Central Bank and gender equality. First of all, I have a rather different view on the substance of Mr Mersch’s comments. I was extremely disappointed by them. However, I am even more disappointed by your position and your explanation here today. Mr Van Rompuy, it is simply not good enough!
We are very proud of the Nobel Peace Prize. We are handing out badges because we are so proud of this achievement; that applies to us as a Group as well. However, we were not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for social peace within the EU. We do not deserve that yet. If we are awarded a Nobel Prize on that basis some day, I will be very satisfied with what we have achieved in Europe. However, we have not achieved it yet. On the contrary, many of the measures being agreed today move us in the wrong direction.
My final comment concerns Mr Cameron. We should make one thing very clear to Mr Cameron, who wishes to veto the budget. Mr Cameron, the fact is that we have a stronger veto: if you veto the budget, there will still be another one, namely the budget for 2013 and 2012! I would be very happy if Mr Cameron were to pursue that course of action, if he showed that he is not interested in Europe, and if he issued an even stronger rebuff to countries such as Poland and so on. We have more leverage than he does. If Mr Cameron does not want to give us his support, we will simply take the 2012 budget as the basis for the future budgets. That is the message that Mr Callaghan should be taking back to Mr Cameron!
I have one final comment on this subject: it is not acceptable for Mr Cameron to steadily withdraw from Europe while still wanting to have a say on every issue. Mr Cameron and the Conservatives, but also the Liberals in the United Kingdom need to make a decision. If you want nothing to do with Europe, then act accordingly, but do not try to have a say on every issue or contribute to decision-making on what happens in the Europe that you reject. Decisions on Europe should be taken by those who are committed to Europe. In my view, that is a fundamental principle which Mr Cameron needs to understand.
We are not prepared to accept this kind of evasiveness. We have shown personal commitment because we believed that we could move forward, and we have built bridges. The President of this House built bridges, and yet all you have to say about gender equality is that, yes, we do not have enough of it! What we wanted was not a description of the situation but a commitment from you on how to move forward, and I am very sorry to say that we did not get it!
As for the Council, I believe that the outcome was half-hearted. I would not go as far as to say that it was negative, but it lacked substance. As for the Compact for Growth and Jobs, we do not need 27 or 28 countries to meet in order to determine that, so far, it has had no effect. The Member States must play their part in ensuring that it is effective. Indeed, that is the critical task for the Member States. However, the problem is not only the Compact for Growth, of course. I think it is very regrettable that we have no opportunity to discuss in more detail today the reasons why the Commission and the majority on the Council still do not accept the World Bank’s findings, namely that their calculations are wrong and that the policies which we are pursuing are leading us into recession. Unfortunately, the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats), the European Conservatives and Reformists Group and, indeed, the Liberals are blocking any discussion of this issue. It is not about the Compact for Growth; it is about changing our policies for growth. We need policies at last which do not lead to recession but promote growth and employment. That is what I am demanding from the Commission and from the majority in the Council!
Do you not see that as unemployment rises, so does Euroscepticism and even outright rejection of Europe? That is the problem we have today. Chancellor Merkel and Mr Schäuble are throwing up a smoke screen, and there is a lot of talk about eurobudgets and a super-commissioner, but this is not going to solve the problems we face today. Even with the banking union, we can see how important it was that François Hollande said that we need the banking union now, or relatively soon. That is not just a question for France and Germany. It is a question of two fundamentally different concepts. The one says that institutional issues are important, so we will think about a convention which we want to appoint as soon as possible, perhaps as early as December, and we will think about a super- commissioner. However, as for thinking about the social problems which our policies are creating – no, they do not want to do that, nor do they want to think about the problems facing Spain and Ireland with the banks and their recapitalisation. Let me assure you that as Socialists and Democrats, our Group will not leave Spain or Ireland to fend for themselves. We will fight to make the banking union a reality soon – with sensible rules, of course – and to ensure that the ESM can finally progress with recapitalisation. Those are things that we agree with, Commission President. Indeed, that is why we are resisting these delaying tactics. In-depth consultation? Yes, by all means, but we need a solution soon, for we do not want any further deepening of the crisis in Spain and Ireland and other countries, with even more people losing their jobs. That cannot be our goal. For us, that is an intolerable situation.
That is why I would like to mention the social question again. Mr Van Rompuy, we need this fifth sector, this fifth pillar, on social issues. That is an urgent necessity. We cannot have a situation in which social issues are simply mentioned in passing and dealt with in a few sentences. Mr Barroso and Mr Van Rompuy said at the press conference that they can see the misery within society. Let me say it again, gentlemen: your job is not to describe what is happening. Your job is to change the situation and to work for a social Europe. That is what we need!"@en1
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