Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-06-13-Speech-3-029-000"
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"en.20120613.6.3-029-000"2
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"Mr President, Mr Wammen, Mr Barroso, ladies and gentlemen, I do not agree with the prophesies of doom that have just been made. However, I would like to make it clear that a fiscal union based on the ‘two-pack’ is, in my opinion, tantamount to declaring the old European idea bankrupt. Once again, Parliament is having to catch up with events. That is my concern.
At the end of June, a summit will be held and we are preparing for it. It will go ahead, the family photos will be taken and people will behave as if everything will go on as before with a few minor changes. However, we are already right in the middle of the changes. We are still hearing the old fairy stories about the good old EU. It seems, and this is one point which I would like to highlight in particular, that the initiatives are contradictory. One amounts to the introduction of supranational structural policies and the other consists of the increasing renationalisation of policies during the course of the crisis. These are two sides of the same coin, in other words, a fiscal and banking union to allow the EU to continue as a neoliberal project on a new level. This is accompanied on both sides by massive cuts in social services, drastic reductions in public spending and more stringent sanction mechanisms. Part of the logic of this way of thinking is that the parliaments and, in particular, the European Parliament should be marginalised.
Therefore, I strongly support the protests against the separation and renationalisation of elements of the Schengen Agreement. For this reason, I am very much in favour of Parliament making a clear statement about the multiannual financial framework and not allowing itself to be pushed aside. The Community method must not be replaced by the Union method. This must not happen. The institutions rely on one another and if one institution tries to reduce the power of the others, the result will be the collapse of the idea of the European Union. I would like to make this clear in the light of the multiannual financial framework.
It is also important for us to talk about the fact that the original EU subsidy policy has now been reinterpreted. Funds which were intended to reduce the discrepancies between the Member States and the regions are now being used to create a multispeed EU – it is no longer possible to talk only about two speeds – and to increase the competition to attract new businesses between the regions within the European Union. The weak must remain weak and the funding will go to areas where global competitive strengths can be increased and market orientation is needed. This is why the macro-economic conditionalities are being introduced and why subsidies for the regions are being abolished if the Member States fail to meet the criteria of the Stability and Growth Pact. It is both absurd and cruel for you to penalise the people who live in these regions on several levels. You know exactly what I am talking about in this context.
Instead, we need sustainable growth which focuses on strengthening the public sector and on public responsibility. This is why I believe that you have the wrong priorities and the wrong conditions. This makes discussion about a different Europe more difficult. Why are you blackmailing the Greek voters? Why are you criticising all the serious initiatives and alternatives that come not only from those on the left but also from academics in several European countries. They are saying that we need to open up a window which will allow us to gain some time and to link the two serious concerns of the Greek people together. They want to stay in the euro area and they want conditions that will allow them to survive and to live normal lives. We in Parliament must commit ourselves to achieving this."@en1
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