Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-13-Speech-3-217"
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"en.20020313.9.3-217"2
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"Mr President, six months after the attacks of 11 September, the United States is reverting to growth and job-creation while Europe lags behind, plagued by uncertainty and contradictory signals. In this context, the Trentin report, which seeks to assist in preparing the broad economic policy guidelines for 2003, might have been expected to signal very vigorous reforms that could kick-start the European economy.
This is not the case. All we see in it are reform proposals that are already very familiar, such as lifelong learning, support for research, completion of the market in financial services and the opening of the energy and transport markets, measures which will bear little fruit in the immediate future. The report also contains the traditional call for close European budgetary coordination, which is said to release what the report calls ‘positive synergies’, whereas in practice it could well add to the rigidity that already exists.
For our part, we should like to take this opportunity to call first and foremost for a sharp reduction in taxes and other public charges, because these are the number-one problem in the countries where growth is slow. This will inevitably be a major issue in the French election campaign in particular. The European Union, of course, has no direct legislative powers in the realm of taxation. This makes it all the more regrettable that Commissioner Pedro Solbes Mira, in an article that appeared yesterday in a French daily newspaper, spoke out of turn by apparently stating that a candidate’s promises to cut taxes were not backed by a corresponding pledge to cut public spending.
This comment is below the belt, firstly because our candidates’ platforms have not yet been finalised and secondly because Commissioner Solbes is not the head of an economic government of Europe, there being no such thing. He should leave the French electorate to decide for themselves."@en1
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