Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-03-Speech-3-082"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20081203.13.3-082"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, honourable Members, I should first like to reply to Mrs Berès, firstly by providing a brief retrospective on what has happened over the last year or so.
I believe, as you have already said, Mrs Berès, that now is the time to relaunch our economy. The Member States and the Union must act in concert and contribute to a wider response at the global level.
With regard to the recovery of the European economy, the Commission has taken the initiative of publishing a communiqué on 26 November, a European economic recovery plan for growth and jobs. The Council is very pleased with this communiqué, and I am pleased that you regard this, Mrs Berès, as a step in the right direction.
In order to completely resolve the crisis, and particularly to draw lessons from it, we must analyse what has happened. The original financial turbulence, as you know, appeared in the subprime market in the US. These gradually spread, revealing serious malfunctions in our financial systems.
From the macroeconomic point of view, this crisis also reflects the implications of internal imbalances in terms of household debt, and of external imbalances particularly the current deficit in the US. But it is, I wish to stress, above all, a crisis in the regulation of financial markets which reveals the defective operation of certain aspects of our frameworks of regulation and monitoring.
A large number of these aspects have already been discussed as part of the road maps and the work conducted by the Ecofin Council during the French Presidency. But in addition to the urgent measures taken at Community level to restore confidence in the financial markets and protect savers’ deposits, support financial institutions and provide assistance to Member States in difficulties, the fundamental reforms you are asking for, Mrs Berès, are, I believe, already underway.
On this subject, I should like to express my pleasure with the agreement reached in the Council on four draft directives, which will have a decisive effect on improving the stability of the financial sector, protecting individuals, and further strengthening the internal market. These are the directive on bank capital requirements, the directive on deposit guarantees, solvency II, and the directive on Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS).
Furthermore, work is in progress on the monitoring of financial institutions that have hitherto not been monitored. Work on European regulations concerning rating agencies has begun and is expected to be completed in spring 2009.
I have no doubt that Parliament shares our determination to ensure that these texts are adopted as soon as possible. Furthermore, the French Presidency of the Council has undertaken to initiate long-term work on the procyclicity of financial regulations with a view to reviewing the supervisory and accounting framework and on the incentives offered in the financial sector, by examining the very important issue of the remuneration of managers and market traders. With regard to supervision in Europe, concrete progress has already been reported over the last few months: greater convergence between the practices of national supervisory systems so that each implements the documents in an equivalent manner; strengthening the supervisory systems of cross-border groups by establishing supervisory boards; and more efficient operation of European supervisory committees, with the introduction of qualified majority voting for their meetings to improve decision-making procedures.
However, I believe more radical changes are necessary in this area, and we are very much looking forward to the work of the high-level group chaired by Jacques de Larosière, which will also look at supervision, particularly the issue of the supervision of investment funds.
In any event, all these achievements and this work point to the European Union remaining the driving force in the international work being conducted in response to the financial crisis. The Union has definitely been a driving force in international activity aimed at a thorough reform of the global financial architecture, in particular, an increase in the capacity of international financial institutions in order to prevent crisis factors from reappearing.
The crisis which started in the United States is, as you all know, continuing to have consequences. While the situation in the financial sector seems to have stabilised and shows signs of improvement, although everything has not yet settled down, the challenge is, from now on, to limit the effects of this financial crisis on the real economy and businesses as far as possible.
The crisis has very clearly demonstrated that these problems, which are of global scale, must be resolved at the global level. The French Presidency has therefore taken the initiative of proposing to the United States that an international summit be held, which would include the main emerging countries, to define the principles and the initial actions to be taken for the re-establishment of international financial architecture.
With this aim in mind, the Presidency submitted proposals to the Member States. These proposals were discussed at the Ecofin Council and then adopted by the Heads of State or Government. Europe was thus able, and I believe this is very important, to speak with one voice at the Washington meeting on 15 November.
Prior to the G20 meeting, the Ecofin Council played its part by defining the European Union’s common message with regard to international financial architecture. At its meeting on 4 November, it examined all relevant questions in order to decide on a European response to the crisis and its proposal was subsequently endorsed by the Heads of State or Government at their informal meeting on 7 November.
I believe that this European unity has enabled very significant progress to be made, particularly on the part of our partners in the US and in emerging countries, both in terms of supporting global growth and in the regulation and supervision of global financial markets whose principle has been extended to all stakeholders, markets and jurisdictions.
I am convinced that this summit represents the starting point for a review of the tools and resources of international financial institutions. The IMF must be supplied with a wide range of instruments that will enable it to support the Member States flexibly and rapidly. The World Bank must be rallied to provide the necessary finance for emerging and poor countries, enabling them to deal with the shortages and price increases in market resources.
Furthermore, not only must the international financial institutions have the resources to deal with crises, they must also play a key role in their prevention. The IMF, in particular, in association with the Financial Stability Forum, must be able to identify any accumulation of risks and bubbles in the financial system and recommend the corresponding economic policies.
The Council therefore unreservedly supports the statement issued by the Heads of State or Government of the G20 countries, made public on 15 November. Everything is now in place for developing common European positions so that this ‘Washington declaration’ can be implemented within the timescale set out for the next international deadlines.
Fundamentally, and to conclude, Mr President, I believe that in addition to the progress made on the basic issues, two important messages may be drawn from this.
Europe, after very rapid preparation, spoke with one voice at the Washington summit. Europe must therefore remain a driving force in the current debate on reforming international financial architecture.
Our internal discussions and the reforms which we will go on adopting must continue in order to feed in to this process, which is only just beginning.
The forecast published by the Commission at the beginning of November, shows a considerable drop in economic growth in the European Union, which is expected to be 1.4% in 2008, whereas only in 2007 it was 2.9%.
In 2009, according to the Commission, business activity in the European Union is expected to stagnate with an annual average growth rate of 0.2% GDP. Growth is expected to return very slowly over the course of the year to reach an annual average of 1.1% in 2010. This will be the situation, to the extent that it can be predicted, over the coming weeks and months.
Concerning the financial situation – if this seems to be moving in a better direction than a few months ago, this is mainly as a result of the determined action of Member States and central banks, including the European Central Bank, and as my colleague and friend Jean-Pierre Jouyet has spoken at length on this issue, I will not revisit the subject.
The Heads of State of the euro zone countries met on 12 October and for the first time agreed on a concerted action plan, whose principles were approved by the European Council on 15 and 16 October.
All Member States have now adopted national measures in conformity with the principles in this plan, for example, as you already know, through guarantee mechanisms for the financing of banks and systems enabling their recapitalisation.
In addition, the ECB has deployed considerable efforts to provide liquidity to the market, by diversifying its invitations to tender and extending the range of its collaterals.
I believe that we have demonstrated solidarity in supporting Member States gripped by financial difficulties. We have helped one Member State, Hungary, at the start of November, this had to be done. We have now also agreed on the need to raise the upper limit for loans that the Union may make under this arrangement from EUR 12 billion to EUR 25 billion."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples