Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-21-Speech-1-051"
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"en.20021021.4.1-051"2
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"Mr President, I welcome, understand and support the recent statements by President Prodi on public finance policy in Europe. If I understood correctly, the Commission has now made an intelligent start to a process of defending the Stability and Growth Pact, which will only be possible if it demonstrates political courage and if it is able to break with some of its current positions. We hope that the European Parliament, which is, by definition, the Community institution that is most open and most representative of the common citizen, understands and supports the positive process that President Prodi has set in motion.
Only those who have been going around with their heads completely in the clouds and divorced from Europe’s economic reality could be surprised today. It was clear from the earliest days that the Stability and Growth Pact was founded on rules that would work reasonably in times of economic growth but which could prove to be a hindrance when faced with certain unforeseen circumstances and with only moderate growth. The Europe of the Euro is founded on a framework of a single monetary policy and twelve separate budget policies. This justifies the existence of clear rules preventing undisciplined economies, especially the larger ones, from jeopardising the stability of the system.
Budgetary rigour is the guarantee that today’s generation will not bequeath excessive debt to future generations. Forcing States to rationalise their spending and to make their services more efficient is crucial to a genuine development strategy. I am sure that we all agree on this. Nevertheless, the disciplinary rules must be understood by the markets and must not contravene national policies and the legitimate interests and commitments associated with them. This requires them to be worded flexibly, and adapted whenever this should prove necessary.
This is the original sin of the Stability and Growth Pact and this is why more and more voices are calling for it to be amended. Closing our eyes to this new reality would be to reject out of hand all of our commitments, condemning the Pact and especially its aims, to total failure. A static interpretation of the Stability and Growth Pact is beginning to look unsustainable, because it does not respond to the current economic situation and even less matches the aims that the European Union set for itself in Lisbon of becoming, in the short term, the most powerful economy in the world. Using the Stability and Growth Pact intelligently, emphasising the pillar of growth in the current economic situation is absolutely crucial for nature not to rebel and for the building that has been constructed so laboriously not to collapse."@en1
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