Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-14-Speech-2-064"
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"en.20020514.7.2-064"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, my report on the annual assessment of implementation of stability and convergence programmes, which was approved unanimously by the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, concludes – in brief – that the annual stability and convergence programmes submitted by the governments of the Member States and their application in 2001 were, for the most part, in keeping with the requirements of the stability and growth pact, despite the recession caused by the decline in growth rates, what were luckily temporary setbacks in the American economy and one-off incidents such as the terrorist attacks on 11 September.
This generally positive state of affairs, a number of very serious exceptions in the case of Germany and Portugal notwithstanding, proves that having a stability pact and applying it as strictly as possible – and the policy of the European Central Bank has helped here – are vital to monetary stability. That was why we were able to introduce the euro successfully and the prevailing opinion is that it is a prerequisite to healthy and sound economic growth in the European Union, something we have yet to achieve.
Unfortunately, apart from a few exceptions, rates of growth are still low, high unemployment persists, causing serious problems among the poorer classes and the young in particular, and we live with the threat of inflationary pressures. The European Commission and ECOFIN believe that recovery is on the way and will start to bite during the last quarter of this year. The new stability programmes for the next three years paint a similar picture. We shall just have to wait and see if they prove to be right. Unfortunately, despite the upward trend in the American economy and recent improvements on the stock exchanges, uncertainty persists and huge swathes of the population are taking to the streets to voice their dissatisfaction, occasionally in extreme terms, especially at the last elections. Obviously, simple management by the intergovernmental conference is not enough. We need more effective economic policies which strengthen the competitiveness of the European economy, promote convergence, encourage productive investment, especially high-tech investment, and create jobs, if we are to allay fears caused by what is, unfortunately, an uncontrollable influx of immigrants, the criminality ascribed to them and persistent high unemployment, especially among the young.
Despite the fact that a revised stability pact – or more lenient application of it – are being mooted in certain quarters, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs considers it is vital that it be adhered to rigidly and is therefore highly critical of the cowardly manner in which deviations in Germany and Portugal were dealt with. Unfortunately, despite the Commission's recommendation that an early warning be sent to these countries, as happened with Ireland in the past, ECOFIN did not do so, clearly for political reasons. That was a bad move and could undermine confidence in the need for the pact and the Commission's authority. And it has turned out to be an extremely bad move because, after the elections in Portugal, for example, the new Portuguese Government revealed that public finances were in a far worse state than the previous government had let on, with the budget deficit exceeding the gross domestic product by far more than the 3% limit. Figures were also covered up in Germany, on unemployment at least, while the deficit in both France and Greece appears to be much higher than suggested by the figures released.
All this creative accounting must stop; the Commission is already pressing for greater transparency and honesty in figures released by governments and stressing the urgent need to speed up the structural reforms needed, especially in pensions, the liberalisation of markets, especially the job and energy markets, and education standards, if the Lisbon targets are to be met.
The European Union needs to be bolder, to learn from the successes of the American model – which announced a worrying 80% increase in farming subsidies yesterday – and to allow the creative forces of private initiative free – but not of course unaccountable – rein, without abandoning the social market economy, so as to escape the current climate of uncertainty which is a breeding ground for many a threat. And it has to do so against a backdrop of destabilising terrorist activities and in the face of the sort of revival of far-right and far-left movements, with all the suffering that presages, the like of which has not been seen since between the First and Second World Wars."@en1
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