Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-05-Speech-3-023"
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"en.20000705.2.3-023"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner Solbes Mira, President Duisenberg, ladies and gentlemen, I should like, if I may, to deal swiftly with various questions in relation to the work of the European Central Bank.
First, the 1999 annual report. I think we need to acknowledge that the Central Bank did a good job in 1999: inflation remained very low, providing the euro with a high degree of stability, and our citizens' purchasing power remained the same.
We should also, I think, congratulate President Duisenberg and his team for the smooth introduction of the euro as bank money. I think that was an achievement which deserves to be highlighted.
As far as the current year is concerned, the figures are not quite as pleasing. Inflation has risen again, driven by the increase in oil prices. The Central Bank has responded by tightening credit terms, not that rates are currently overly high in Europe. Nonetheless, the Central Bank's strategy has not always been completely clear or highly legible.
In fact, there have been a lot of copycat decisions between the European Central Bank and its big sister, the Federal Reserve in the United States. When the Federal Reserve
hikes its base rate by 25 points, the European Central Bank follows suit; when the Federal Reserve adds 50 points, the Central Bank does likewise a few weeks later. But the situation in the United States is quite different from the situation in Europe and sometimes I get the impression that the European Central Bank is giving in slightly to market expectations and appeasing the markets with increases of 25 or 50 points and I worry somewhat when I read reports by financial analysts predicting increases of over 100 points by the end of the year.
Inflation is there, sure enough, Mr Duisenberg! But I note that it is falling and I do not therefore think that waiting for the markets is the right approach. You are there, Mr Duisenberg, to serve the entire European economy, not to serve the financial markets, and I must say that the European Central Bank has been most discreet so far on the subject of the blatant irrationality and permanent casino atmosphere of the financial markets. I have just listened to a statement by Mr Issing, criticising the sheep-like behaviour of the financial markets, especially in connection with the relative weakness of the euro. I think that this weakness is, indeed, completely relative and that we should not read too much into these fluctuations, even if they do relate to our economy.
I hope to see better coordination between European policies. I want a stronger European economy, not in opposition to, but in cooperation with the Monetary Fund, on the understanding that each of them retains its freedom of decision and action.
Mr President, unfortunately I have run out of time and I would like to have said a great deal more, especially on enlargement. Allow me to say just two words on Mr Radwan's comments. Every country which is to join the European Union should be a member of the Economic and Monetary Union. We want to apply the Treaty, but the whole Treaty and nothing but the Treaty.
My final word, Mr President, is this: if I had to write a report for Mr Duisenberg, it would say ‘good, but could do better’."@en1
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