Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-15-Speech-4-233"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2001-02-15"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Stability plans in Ireland and France2
dcterms:Language	"fr"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20010215.11.4-233"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2001-02-15-Speech-4-2342
lpv:speaker	lp:Francis Wurtz2
lpv:spokenAs	substitute; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 unknown; Parti communiste français (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; Conference of Presidents (1999-10-13--2004-07-19)3 member; BUDG (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 member; Members from the European Parliament to the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union (ACP-EU) (1999-09-14--2002-01-14)3 chair; EUL/NGL (1999-10-13--2004-07-19)3
lpv:translated text	"Madam President, first of all, I would like to thank you for having set an example while chairing what is, in a way, the closing sitting of our part-session. I shall now turn to the topic of our debate and say that I welcome the opportunity that we have to give our views on the significance and impact of the decision that the Commission, then the Council, have taken to use for the first time the Treaty of Amsterdam provision in order to address not a sanction, Commissioner, but a public reprimand to a Member State, in this instance, Ireland, as well as to severely rebuke several other countries for not complying with all the requirements of the Stability and Growth Pact. I believe that this will provide many people with food for thought regarding the liberal logic of the current economic and monetary union, just months before the euro intrudes into the everyday lives of 300 million European citizens. Like the others, I do not question the principle of such warnings which are the logical corollary of the coordination of economic policies. On the other hand, I denounce the underlying attitude. The guardians of monetary orthodoxy in the European institutions are obsessed with the idea of excessive public spending, excessive spending on social provision. They have no consideration for the shameful inequality that still exists in the social model that the European Union claims to represent; nor do they have any consideration for the need to promote the human skills necessitated by the information revolution, which is developing at lightning speed before our very eyes and which really has yet to take off. It is significant that health spending, in particular, was specifically targeted in the Commission’s criticisms of various Member States, one of which was France. On almost the same day, the Commission decided to bring a case against France before the Court of Justice since it was guilty of charging the lowest income families a lower rate of VAT on some of the price of electricity and gas. Over-restrictive measures of this kind are not the way to survive the crisis of confidence that citizens are experiencing towards European Union institutions. Reference has been made to the public comments made by Mr Prodi regarding the criticism of Ireland which, up until now, has been presented as a model of success. When the President of the Commission said that sometimes, the schoolmaster must punish even the best pupil, he revealed a stunningly original perception of the new European method of governing. I am counting on the great debate on the future of Europe, which has everyone talking, not to focus on abstract institutional reforms alone but to be based on actual experiences such as those of citizens in the countries which have been targeted by the harsh criticism of the Commission and the Council."@en1

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