Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-11-18-Speech-2-267"
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I should like to commend the European Parliament’s excellent decision to organise two debates in one today: on the European management of the global financial crisis, in the wake of the G20 summit in Washington, and on the Commission’s work programme for 2009.
Secondly, the principles of a new global governance to rectify commercial, monetary and budgetary imbalances that are detrimental to the global community.
Thirdly, and this is the question that I believe needs to be discussed most urgently, the need for coordinated action to stimulate the global economy and minimise the consequences of the crisis for the jobs and purchasing power of our fellow citizens.
Fourthly, the need for open markets and the rejection of all protectionism. That, moreover, is why we shall endeavour to reach a consensus by the end of 2008 on ways to conclude the Doha Round for trade and development.
At the same time, the summit has sent out a clear signal, which will, I believe, be very important to Europeans. Economic and financial issues must not be dealt with in ways that are detrimental to the other global challenges, which also call for a collective effort, namely, achieving the Millennium Development Goals, energy security, combating climate change, food safety, the rule of law, combating terrorism, poverty and disease.
I personally emphasised this point. I even said that, in my opinion, it would be obscene to discuss major issues of global finance and ignore the needs of those who do not have enough to eat or do not have access to clean water.
A new chapter in politics is now beginning, and we must write it rapidly and in practical terms. In this sense, we must make matters clear. If Europe has played a major role with its proposals to the G20 and if it has made itself heard, it is because it was united. I should like to say once more how proud I am of the excellent cooperation we have achieved between the French Presidency and the Commission, and also with your institution, the European Parliament.
The European Union now faces a real challenge to continue to speak with one voice. Sometimes it will be difficult, but it is the condition that is vital for our success.
Be that as it may, in Europe we have not been slow to take some very important decisions already. After successive European Councils and debates with the European Parliament, the Commission has already made some important legislative proposals, which are now before the co-legislators. On 29 October we also outlined an economic recovery programme that we are going to formalise with a document that the Commission is to adopt next week.
This is where the Commission’s work programme for 2009 comes in. Of course, we have already covered much ground over the past few months. Of course, we are still going to make headway with certain elements by the end of the year, but there will be many things left for us to do next year, too.
This double debate perfectly reflects the political reality to which Europe must respond: rising to the challenge of an emergency whilst resolutely continuing with the fundamental work already begun.
This programme contains four priorities on which we were, moreover, broadly in agreement with the views of the European Parliament during the September debate on the annual political strategy for 2009.
The first of these priorities is self-evident: growth and jobs. In 2009, we will initially strive to achieve two things: limiting the consequences of the economic slowdown on jobs and businesses in Europe, and continuing with our reform so as to be better prepared for the post-crisis period. We must apply to the real economy the same approach that we used successfully when the financial crisis erupted: defining clear principles and coordinated measures at European Union level. I think, in fact, that our citizens would not understand if the governments of the 27 and the European institutions, having been able to agree on a common platform to respond to the financial crisis, were not now capable of working out a common platform to respond to the economic crisis. The least we can do, therefore, is to accept the principle of coordination between all the Member States and, of course, with the European institutions.
Such is the framework of the recovery plan that the Commission will present on 26 November under the umbrella of the Lisbon Strategy. We have the instruments in Europe, we have the Lisbon Strategy for growth and employment, we have the Stability and Growth Pact, and we can demonstrate that these instruments, with political will, and especially with European will, can respond to the crisis that we are currently going through.
We are living in exceptional times, and they call for exceptional measures. We need a genuine common strategy to bring together the conditions for an economic recovery, a programme that seeks, above all, to limit the impact of the crisis on citizens – households, workers, entrepreneurs – a programme that uses all available levers – fiscal, structural or regulatory, both at European level and at national level – in a coordinated effort, and on this point also, I want to say how much we have appreciated the cooperation of the European Central Bank up till now.
No Member State, in fact, could emerge from this crisis by means of national measures alone. Our economies are much too interdependent for that. One of the most interesting results of this summit in Washington is that everyone understood that, with globalisation, even those who had been least exposed to financial market integration now know the effect of interdependence. If the entire world is ready to accept the effects of interdependence, we in Europe must not only recognise this interdependence, but must also be able to respond in coordinated and consistent ways.
That is why we believe that we need a budgetary stimulus programme in order to sustain demand, to exploit synergies and to avoid negative chain reactions, a programme of measures that are timely, targeted and temporary: the three ‘t’s’. We need these measures urgently, and that is what we shall propose to our Member States.
I am thinking above all about efforts to encourage training and retraining, to invest more heavily in innovation, interconnectivity and in transforming Europe into a low carbon economy. I am thinking above all of the need to adapt certain sectors of our economy to our other goals of combating climate change. This will be a splendid opportunity to show that the agenda to combat climate change is not an agenda against economic growth. On the contrary, it will perhaps be an agenda that encourages modernisation of European industry.
I am also thinking about increased efforts to reduce administrative costs for businesses and thereby unlocking the potential of SMEs in particular, a central feature of our Better Regulation Review in January 2009.
We are increasingly committed to the goals of better lawmaking, that is, ‘better regulation’. We must reduce all unnecessary administrative burdens, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises.
The Social Agenda for opportunities, access and solidarity is also part of the European response to the economic crisis, because there will be social difficulties to be dealt with, we are not denying it, particularly as a result of an increase in the rate of unemployment, which now seems more than likely. That is why we must move forward the Social Agenda. I would emphasise, in particular, the measures to promote consumer interests and to open up the job market to young people, but there will no doubt be many other issues that we shall want to discuss with the European Parliament.
You will therefore not be surprised that the Commission’s work programme for 2009 also has a dual purpose: continuity and action in a time of crisis. I shall come back to that.
With regard to finance, I am relying on the Members of this House to swiftly adopt the Commission’s proposals on capital adequacy, deposit guarantees and rating agencies. It is essential to re-establish a climate of confidence. In 2009, the Commission will take concrete measures to strengthen the regulatory framework of the European financial system. It will look into the regulation, supervision and transparency of financial markets, including the areas mentioned in the Rasmussen and Lehne reports. It will let you have, before the spring Council, the first analyses of the high-level group responsible for financial supervision, which we have set up.
To conclude this first part of the debate, I think that, in spite of their negative effects, crises always have one virtue. They shake up our fixed patterns of thinking and our certainties, giving a certain plasticity to situations and leaving the flexibility necessary for remodelling or reshaping them.
I would like once more to convey to you very sincerely and very openly the feeling that I had in Washington last weekend. I saw an open-mindedness that, frankly, we would not have had a few months ago. It is the crisis that has changed many attitudes. There is now an openness not only among the great powers but also among the emerging powers, towards changing the world and promoting European values: the value of freedom and the value of solidarity. In the case of Europe, I believe that this is the moment for it to make its mark on the course of events.
First of all, however, I should like to return to the assessment of the Washington summit, which was also given by Mr Jouyet on behalf of the French Presidency. Allow me to remind you that the political initiative of starting a global process for reforming the financial system came from Europe, and I think we can congratulate ourselves on that. The European Union was equal to the challenge. It was also from Europe that the key issues in the debate came. I am not going to repeat them as we spoke about them together, in this House, last month.
The guidelines laid down by the extraordinary meeting of the European Council on 7 November, inspired by the joint work of our three institutions, served as a platform for the discussions. The Commission made proposals. The President of the European Parliament, Mr Pöttering, also took part in these discussions, and we worked out a common position. I invite all those who are sometimes inclined to criticise to look at the proposals that we, as Europe, have made and at the results of the G20.
We need, of course, a bit of distance in time to judge whether an event marks a turning point in history, but my feeling – and I should like to convey this to you very openly – is that this first meeting of the G20 Heads of State or Government genuinely marks the beginning of a new era in the collective steering of the global economy, and perhaps more than that, since the crisis has made the protagonists realise the need for a global approach to global problems. That is my feeling.
The Washington summit also laid the foundations for a new global governance based on the principles of a market economy, but an economy as envisaged by Europe is not just a market economy; it is, as we say very often in Europe, a social market economy. That is one of the European Union’s assets.
In fact, the G20 reached agreement on four fundamental decisions.
Firstly, not necessarily in terms of importance, but in terms of the order of the decisions, an action plan for the short and medium term to reform the financial markets, to avoid further crises and to protect consumers, savers and investors."@en1
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