Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-13-Speech-2-041"
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"en.20090113.5.2-041"2
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"Mr President, do enjoy the 10th birthday of the euro because I very much doubt you will be celebrating the 20th. What we have seen this morning has been reminiscent of the old Soviet times. Do you remember when the five-year plans were announced to be successes often before they were even launched, with much talk of record harvests and wonderful production figures for tractors? Much like those days, we have been treated this morning to a succession of unelected, ageing bureaucrats telling us what a great success the whole thing has been. It is all delusional stuff.
The idea that the ECB has done a good job is extraordinary. It was last July when the European Central Bank put interest rates up, just at the very moment that the markets were going into meltdown and rates were being slashed across the rest of the world. Of course none of this surprises me because what this euro is all about is a political class imposing its will upon the peoples of Europe. Remember that only two countries – Denmark and Sweden – had a referendum on the euro and both of them said ‘no’, that little word that you try and avoid if you possibly can.
The euro zone has never been tested but it is about to be. Spain is in economic trouble. Italy, as German economists at the time said, should never have joined the euro, but the situation in Greece is, I think, where we should focus our attention. Thousands of young people out on the streets demonstrating, demanding their government does something, demanding that their government cuts rates, demanding that their government devalues. But the Greek Government is stuck inside the euro straitjacket. There is nothing it can do. There is nothing that a future general election can do in Greece to change anything. When people have taken away from them the ability to determine their own futures through the ballot box, then I am afraid that violence becomes the only logical alternative.
What you have done with this euro is you have trapped people in an economic prison. You have trapped people in a
from which it will take great courage to get out. It will take leadership, or possibly the inevitable economic meltdown. You can boo, you can jeer, but remember this: Britain outside of the euro has been able to devalue, has been able to slash interest rates. We have been able to do the things that we need to do. Jeer on if you like, but have you noticed that on the bond markets this morning Greek bonds are trading 233 basis points higher than German bonds? Now I know that most of you in this room will not even know what that means and those that do will do their best to ignore it. You can go on burying your heads in the sand if you want. You can ignore the markets if you want to, but in time the markets will not ignore you."@en1
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