Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-01-16-Speech-3-131"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20020116.10.3-131"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, I am indeed reading the text of Mrs Peijs, and in order to emphasise this, I am standing in her place, but to remove any doubt you may have: I am totally behind it. The ‘euro introduction’ project has been a success. In the Netherlands and in Ireland, the introduction of the euro is practically completed. More than 90% of all payments are already conducted in euros. Mrs Peijs is proud – and I could not agree more – that European citizens have so quickly adopted the euro with such a great sense of innovation and have put their own currencies to one side.
The Europeans did not need long changeover periods. Today, we undoubtedly owe a special word of thanks and recognition to the retail trade, which has absorbed a whole host of difficulties with appropriate flexibility. The banks and their staff have also contributed a great deal to the smooth transition. We must now take an important next step. The euro must remain a stable and strong currency. For that purpose, the President of the Central Bank must first and foremost remain where he is and must closely monitor the bank’s objectives, namely low inflation. It is almost more important for the Member States to start to realise that they are not on their own and are not fully autonomous, but that everything they do, and notably what they do not do, has a bearing on the entire Community and on the stability of the currency.
In order to sustain the confidence of the markets, it is very important for the large Member States in particular – and perhaps notably Germany – at long last to take the necessary measures to open up their markets completely, to make their labour markets more flexible, to make their pension systems sustainable and to modernise their social benefits. Instead of being the Union’s driving force, these countries act more as a brake on the Union’s progress. Any weakness in the currency is down to the Member States and so far not to the Central Bank, which is operating exceptionally well, except in the field of payment balance systems, such as TARGET, and the consumer system."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples