Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-07-03-Speech-2-177"
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"en.20010703.9.2-177"2
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".
I shall endeavour to reply to this second point. As I was saying just now – and Greece’s case applies to the other Member States too – the stability pacts are based on figures provided by the countries themselves. It is true that the Commission’s estimates in some cases give higher or lower figures than those given in the stability pact, but leaving aside the figures given in the stability pacts, which are, nevertheless crucial to understanding developments in public finances, we can already state that our estimates for a growth of 2.8% today represent an excessively optimistic position. We also feel that our actual growth percentages will be much closer to the Union’s growth potential, which stands at around 2.5%.
Nevertheless, even with this growth rate of close to 2.5% – a little above or a little below – we feel that employment will continue to be created in the Union and, for the time being, we have not yet seen any significant fall in employment growth or an increase in unemployment. Unemployment continues to fall. For the moment, therefore, we continue to be relatively optimistic about developments in this field.
With regard to the issue of public finances, it is true that the less favourable economic climate might have some impact. With this eventuality in mind, the Commission has already stated its position on public finances to the Council, indicating that, in our opinion, we should allow the automatic stabilisers to play their full role in those countries that have achieved a more or less balanced position in terms of public finance and in other countries that have a national debt of around 60%.
In this situation, the countries in which the automatic stabilisers should not be allowed to play their full role should be the four countries with deficits of more than 1% and the three that have a debt of close to 100%. Italy is included in both groups. The remaining countries are Germany, France and Portugal where deficit is concerned and Greece and Belgium in the case of national debt."@en1
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