Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-24-Speech-3-034"
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"en.20100224.13.3-034"2
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"Mr President, Mr Van Rompuy, Mr Barroso, ladies and gentlemen, the European Council of 11 February was the first to be convened and presided over by Mr Van Rompuy, whom I would like to welcome on his first appearance in the plenary session of the European Parliament.
Presidents, ladies and gentlemen, that is the reality of the balance of power in the world. However, because it is still divided, Europe is unable to punch its full weight. Can we tolerate this any more? The PPE Group does not think so. It is time, President Van Rompuy, for the euro area countries to open their eyes to this state of affairs and to learn from it. They would then be prepared for what they will soon have to do out of necessity, namely, truly unite instead of clinging to this facade of economic sovereignty, which is nothing but a dangerous pretence.
Mr Van Rompuy, the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) expects a lot of you. I welcome the positive and pragmatic spirit of your speeches since your nomination, and I appreciate the tone that you want to set in the European Council, but I expect you and the Council of Ministers to be aware that with the Treaty of Lisbon, your relations with us, the MEPs, have changed. We are equal decision makers, and that has not only legal consequences, but political ones as well.
Now I would like to come to the substance of the debates of 11 February, which is, of course, the 2020 strategy, but it is also the euro and economic and budgetary policy, since speculation against the Greek debt and the euro were certainly unexpected guests in the Solvay library.
I would like to put the following question: is the weakening of our common currency solely due to the Greek crisis, or is the euro the target of direct attacks by those who are unhappy about its power and that of the Member States involved?
Secondly, are we going to wait until the situation in certain euro area countries deteriorates before we react, as we did with Greece? If not, what plans are there to put things right in the countries most at risk? A question for you there, President Van Rompuy.
I ask these questions because, while I am happy with the solidarity measures taken on 11 February, I seriously doubt whether we Europeans are really on top of the situation. What is the situation, if not the fact that the Greek warning has shown the extent to which we must take courageous decisions to finally make sure that our currency, the euro, reflects the political power behind it?
Of course, we talk a great deal, we talk about economic governance, we also talk about monetary governance, but we could make matters a great deal simpler and certainly more effective if we devised and implemented real budgetary coordination of the euro area members. The former French Prime Minister, Edouard Balladur, has himself recently recognised the need to abandon sovereignty in some areas – something that is not easy for a Frenchman – and has spoken in favour of the national budgets of the euro area States being approved by the Eurogroup even before being submitted to the national parliaments.
I would like to take up this bold idea, and I ask the European Council to consider it and to analyse it seriously. By properly coordinating their budgets, the euro area States would acquire unprecedented influence and room for manoeuvre. This power would mean that they have a strong influence on the development of new global regulations, but it would also demand that the European forces unite within the international financial organisations, where the euro must speak with one voice.
Let me cite a striking example – which was mentioned by Mr Barroso I believe – that of the IMF, where the voting rights are calculated according to the economic weight of the states. With these criteria, the United States enjoys 16.7% of the voting rights, Japan 6%, China 3.6% and the six founding members of the European Union 18.49%. However, if they presented a united front to the IMF, the euro area countries would represent 23% of the votes, and all the countries of the European Union, still united, would represent 32% of the votes, that is to say, twice as many as the United States."@en1
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