Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-01-19-Speech-3-235"
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"en.20000119.8.3-235"2
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"Madam President, may I begin by extending a heartfelt thanks to all speakers and, above all of course, Mr Désir, for the fact that this debate is taking place this evening. Whatever one may think about the topic of debate, it is evident that it is an important one. This is why it has been around for years, and it is satisfying that the Commission is being afforded the opportunity this evening to give a response.
In addition – and this has also been mentioned already, for example by Mr Gasòliba I Böhm, but also by others – there is a need for more supervision. More supervision nationally – supervision by national governments of national banks – and internationally, for example by means of the IMF. So I believe the best way to tackle the causes is by ensuring, on the one hand, that good governance is observed in the countries in question and that, on the other hand, there is more supervision nationally and internationally in order to avoid these lapses.
Madam President, according to various Members of your Parliament, more funding should still be made available for major projects. For example, Mr Kreissl-Dörfler spoke in English about ‘long-term capital for long-term projects’
this is an obvious issue. My reply to this is that, firstly, countries should honour their pledges, namely make 0.7% of their Gross National Product available for development aid and cooperation, so that a great deal more money becomes available than at present for such long-term projects and via a route established for the purpose, namely contributions to development cooperation, and not via an artificial and probably harmful route, namely the Tobin tax.
Madam President, I should like to leave it here. As far as the resolution is concerned, of which I have seen a draft, the Commission will await the vote and will, based on this, determine its stance. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to take part in this debate.
I would like to start by underlining two remarks made by the Member of your Parliament, Mr Gasòliba. He said that globalisation is a positive phenomenon, and I share his view. I believe that globalisation has helped many countries which, so far, have been on the sideline of the world trade streams to participate in these and be incorporated into the world trade system and, as far as I am aware, no country has ever been worse off by participating in international trade. In other words, as indeed already remarked by Mr Gasòliba, globalisation is, in my view, positive, and I am of the opinion that it has contributed to a new international distribution of labour which has been pursued by many people for many years.
A second remark made by Mr Gasòliba was that there is currently no evidence that the Tobin tax will stabilise the exchange rates. I think that he is correct in this regard. I too am not aware of any reason why a tax on exchange rate transactions would lead to a stabilisation of exchange rates.
I am of the opinion that these are two important remarks, and that is why I am reiterating them here. Madam President, could I furthermore point out that none of the speakers this evening has drawn a link between the Tobin tax on the one hand and the functioning of the European Union on the other? Surely we are all familiar with the Treaty of Rome and know that one of the four freedoms is the freedom of capital movement.
Madam President, I can assure your Parliament that my day-to-day work consists partly of attempting, in conjunction with my offices and colleagues, to completely integrate the financial markets within Europe, thus enabling financial transactions to run as easily and smoothly as possible. In my capacity as Commissioner for the Internal Market, I am, in other words, opposed to all measures which hamper international financial transactions. You could hardly expect this Commissioner to agree with a tax which would, in fact, impede international economic movement.
Once again, the Tobin tax is, in my view, at odds with the Treaty of Rome, and this is an important, theoretical objection which has not been considered by any of the speakers this evening.
Madam President, apart from these – to my mind – quite fundamental observations, there are also practical objections to the Tobin tax, as already underlined by Mr Karas and other speakers. It has unfortunately been observed, I have to say, that the European Union has failed to reach agreement internally on specific tax measures. This indicates how difficult these dossiers are. If we have not been able to reach agreement internally, I wonder whether we will then be able to convince the other trade partners. I think that this will be problematic.
Madam President, Mr Jonckheer has stated that this could be one of the measures for stabilising the financial markets. I think, however, that instability is merely a symptom and that we should be looking at the underlying causes. I think that it is preferable to fight the causes rather than attempt to tackle the symptoms when this is probably not possible and when, as already stated, the measure concerned is pretty certainly at odds with the Treaty of Rome.
In order to remove these causes, one has to look at what is happening in the countries in question. Is it the case that these countries can boast of what is termed in English ‘good governance’? Is it the case that there is low inflation and that there are low interest rates? That the markets for production factors, including the labour market, operate flexibly? That is not always the case. So if we want to look into what causes exchange rate instability, then we need to take into account the elements of good governance and focus on these first."@en1
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