Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-03-Speech-3-201"
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"en.20011003.6.3-201"2
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"Mr President, the object of the Stability and Growth Pact is to achieve lasting stability in the financial markets, which have remained a national responsibility since the beginning of the single currency. This means that the Stability Pact is a necessary counterpart in financial policy terms to the policy of monetary union and it is a financial policy substitute for political union, which did not come into being at the same time as monetary union. The objective of the pact is to ensure that there is sufficient leeway in budgets when times are good and to make provision for bad times. Some Member States, including Germany, have failed to do this recently.
However, no sooner have the first difficulties appeared than people have started talking about how the criteria are interpreted. The usual criticism is that although the pact promotes stability, it also acts as a fiscal straitjacket and thus exacerbates weakness in monetary growth. This criticism fails to take account of the facts. The commitment made is to balance budgets in the medium term and to limit deficits, and it cannot therefore be thrown up in the air as soon as growth subsides.
That is why a clear signal is needed from ECOFIN, especially after the discussions that have taken place. With just three months to go before the euro comes into circulation, as Mr Karas mentioned, we need a sign of stability. The problem is that we have failed to achieve the Lisbon objective of becoming the region with the strongest growth in the world. But we can only achieve that objective if the Member States do their homework. They cannot blame this on the European Central Bank.
I would also like to take issue with Mr Tannock for suggesting that the ECB has not met its objectives during this period of crisis. The ECB in particular has reacted very well since 11 September, and the euro has held up. However, the fact that we were already discussing the Stability and Growth Pact before 11 September meant that we were playing with fire, as Mr Karas put it, and causing uncertainty. If we had not done that we would be able to debate the future of the euro in a far calmer way now."@en1
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