Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2014-01-15-Speech-3-017-000"
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"en.20140115.5.3-017-000"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank Mr Samaras for entertaining us this morning with his grand vision of Europe, which I have to say I thought was particularly ironic given that Greece, more than any other country, has suffered at the hands of grand, abstract visions that are not rooted in reality. In Greece, the federalist dream has become the nightmare of the Greek people. Many people in this Chamber and elsewhere dreamt of the common currency, the ultimate symbol of European statehood, but of course they were not honest about the cost that would have to be exacted should a crisis occur. The people of Greece are paying the price of those mistakes.
Prime Minister, you told us this morning that it was time to enjoy the fruits of the Union. Well, perhaps the three million people who are unemployed in your country might think that those fruits are perhaps turning a little sour today. Of course mistakes do happen and, to be fair, you acknowledged them in your speech. What is important is that we learn the lessons from those mistakes. In France, President Hollande is now beginning to realise just how disastrous socialism can be. He is almost – not quite, but almost – embracing capitalism. I understand that he is even now calling himself a social democrat rather than a socialist. I am not quite sure what the difference is, but apparently it makes a big difference in France. But of course his credibility is now shot as he does a 180° U-turn. In fact a ‘social democrat’ is one of the more polite things that he has been called in recent days, but never mind.
In the EU I fear that we are not willing to learn the lessons of the euro crisis. If we do not learn them, then of course, as the saying goes, we are destined to repeat them. I was interested in an article recently drafted by Jochen Bittner, the political editor of
who warned of the EU’s supernova moment. If we had a cosmonaut in this Chamber – as I think we did until fairly recently – he would tell you that a star reaches its greatest destiny just before it explodes. In his article, Mr Bittner rightly concludes that the best way to prevent this is to activate the reverse thrust for certain parts of the unification project, as a way to reduce the continent’s political stress.
That is the direction the EU needs to go in now. It needs to listen to people from across the EU who are now calling for major change. Failure to take action now will run the risk of the EU itself going supernova, but thankfully I am pleased to say that there are now an increasing number of those of us who are talking about, and acting on, the way that the EU needs to change. Let me quote to you from a recent article: ‘Some others want to change things, acting against the tide of the ‘Brussels elite’. These are the modern, the courageous, the defenders of a realist Europe. David Cameron is one’. Now that was not written by some eurosceptic British Conservative MP. I am sorry that Mr Daul has departed, because it was actually by Rachida Dati, a member of the EPP – his party.
Prime Minister, that is the agenda that I would like to have seen your Presidency advance. Your country is best placed to sound the alarm bells for the EU, to warn of the cost of grand abstract plans and to suggest a looser, freer Europe. Unfortunately, you have chosen business as usual. Let me raise a couple of points that are included in your dossier for the Greek Presidency. Firstly, the Banking Union has been mentioned: the single resolution mechanism. We think the agreement reached by the Council on the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) is a fairly innovative way to protect eurozone banks and, of course – much more importantly – to protect taxpayers from across the eurozone and non-eurozone countries. This Parliament, in my view, would be ill-advised to hold this deal to ransom just because some elements are intergovernmental in nature. We need to put what works before grand abstract concepts. With the SRM, the Council has come up with an agreement that works and that we should support.
Secondly, I look forward to the publication next week of the 2030 Climate and Energy Package. From what I read (if it is true), instead of legislation on shale gas exploitation, we will merely see guidelines. What we should be doing is exploiting this resource for the future of Europe.
Prime Minister, just as Bill Clinton once said that the era of big government is over, today the era of the big EU is now over. If we can drop the abstract visions, lose the dogma and focus on a better, more practical Europe, we will be able to tell the Greek people that their hard-fought lessons have not been in vain.
I wish you well in the months ahead. I truly hope that the Greek Presidency will remind Europe and the world that Greece is a nation of great people and that it has a great heritage and, with the right reforms at home and in the EU, a great future.
If I would also just be permitted for 30 seconds, I would like to come back on the comments made by Mr Swoboda about the so-called populist statements – as he referred to them – of David Cameron. I thought this might come up, so I have brought along a newspaper headline for Mr Swoboda: ‘Miliband: stop cheap foreign workers’. I accept that most of you have probably never heard of Mr Miliband, but he is the leader of the Labour Party, a member of Mr Swoboda’s own party. So before you start accusing Mr Cameron, perhaps you should look a little bit closer to home with your populist statements."@en1
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