Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-05-21-Speech-1-047-000"
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"en.20120521.14.1-047-000"2
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"Madam President, my thanks to Simon Busuttil for a job very well done. I had prepared a different speech but, unfortunately, I have to say something else, having noticed the amendment that completely changed the spirit of the report. In Greece, there is a very well-known song, which says, ‘what starts well ends in tears’. I remembered that song, because the report started well and was widely accepted, having been passed unanimously in committee, but it will not end well, because the internal market – and especially the scoreboard – concerns people, not numbers. It concerns European citizens, in a time of crisis no less.
When the European Parliament debates, considers and legislates, it does so for European citizens and it considers and legislates
not
because we are interested in life itself. As far as the scoreboard is concerned, we know that it maps how well each Member States has transposed European legislation and how well it is being applied in its territory. We all know that there are Member States in arrears. We all agree that those Member States must accept reprimands and, possibly, suffer penalties. However, what we must consider, before imposing a penalty, is why those Member States are in arrears and what exactly is to blame. The fact that half the cases pending have to do with taxation and the environment speaks volumes, because we are currently debating economic and monetary union and because it is clear that, when these two are not in step, we have problems and crisis in Europe and the euro comes under threat. So this amendment has been tabled calling, no more and no less, for us to appoint a prosecutor and establish another elected body to impose penalties in order to bring the Member States to their senses. I fear that, if we take that route, Europe will not progress and the internal market will become unattractive. Please can we think very seriously about the question of incentives and penalties, because they reflect perceptions. We socialists and democrats are in favour of incentives and trust that the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) are not only in favour of penalties."@en1
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