Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-26-Speech-2-099"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.19991026.3.2-099"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, President Duisenberg, I too would like to express my delight at being able to welcome President Duisenberg here today. Why is the debate we are having today so important? The European Central Bank is autonomous, and my group is surely the one which always stressed this most. But, at the same time, the European Central Bank must make decisions which concern every individual citizen of Europe. It is therefore particularly important that the bank should not exist in an ivory tower but that it should continue to justify itself to the public. There are a variety of ways in which it can achieve this.
I would also like to point out that the European Parliament has a particularly privileged role here. The European Parliament is explicitly mentioned in the Treaties as the partner of the European Central Bank in dialogue, and this is not the case in the same way with other institutions. The European Parliament is a forum where all of Europe can in fact take part in the debate; though I would have liked to see a rather larger participation in this debate today, for I am of the opinion that this debate is of great significance.
The European Central Bank is autonomous. It is committed in the first instance to ensuring price stability. At this point, I would like to remind Mrs Randzio-Plath that the Treaty plainly stipulates that the prime objective of the European Central Bank is to ensure price stability and that any other objectives may be pursued only if they can be achieved without any risk to price stability, and that price stability itself, as the President has already stated, can have positive social and economic effects.
On behalf of my group, I should like to say that the European Central Bank has achieved some outstanding work in the course of this last year, since it was founded. It has taken some very important decisions, for example, its decision on the definition of price stability. That is of very great significance for the long-term development of our debate on this question. Even in its decision regarding the minimum reserves, which were rather controversial, the European Central Bank, i.e. the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, has demonstrated great perceptiveness. It has, at least, passed its period of probation as far as that goes. I would however like to specify that throughout this probationary period the Bank experienced fair weather, economically speaking. Perhaps occasionally things were rather hazy, but, on the whole, we are going through a period of positive economic development.
It will be much more difficult for the European Central Bank to take uncomfortable decisions, such as, for example, raising interest rates rather than lowering them, if the economic situation becomes more difficult and if actual risks to price stability arise. In the first months of its existence, the European Central Bank has earned our confidence, but if it is to be able in the future to withstand such situations, then this confidence must be systematically consolidated in the years to come and, Mr President, in that endeavour you may count on the support of my group.
We are called upon to vote on a draft amendment which demands that the votes of the individual members of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank should be made public. I would like to make it perfectly clear that my own group will never agree to such an amendment. Why not? Individuals sit on the Governing Council of the Bank, who are personally responsible for monetary stability and who make decisions as individuals within this Governing Council. There is not, therefore, any weighting of votes, such as there is in the Council of Ministers, since it has been determined that these are people who have to vote here as individuals. Publishing the votes could lead to a situation where there would then be national debates on the behaviour of individual members. That would be extraordinarily negative both for the European Central Bank and also for all of us. The European Central Bank has achieved some excellent work, it has earned the confidence of the citizens by dint of its work in the last few months, and this is what we are going to reflect in this resolution."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples