Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-02-Speech-2-132"
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"en.20020702.6.2-132"2
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"Mr President, the ECB's report makes a critical comment to the effect that, in 2001, most of the countries in the eurozone did not succeed in reaching their budget targets. Germany, France, Italy and Portugal again recorded relatively high deficits. There are warnings that the incidence of deficits could rise even higher. To put it another ways, budgetary consolidation, second only to the maintenance of price stability as a primary objective of European economic policy, is in danger. Sufficient stability is not being achieved, nor is space being made for policy creation, which is no less important. It is unfortunate that Parliament's report does not give adequate emphasis to this issue.
Unlike Mr Karas, I take the view that the Stability and Growth Pact deserves to be a matter of controversy. It is, in my judgement, in grave crisis because its reference value of 3% was laid down arbitrarily and is too rigid. In times of stagnation and recession, its shackles prove to have a toxic effect on economic recovery. It is no accident that the eurozone finance ministers have already called on the Commission to take more account of cyclical fluctuations when assessing the Member States' budgetary positions. I therefore strongly urge that the Stability Pact be reformed and supplemented by an employment pact which would require the Member States' economic policies to be comprehensively coordinated.
As we used to hear from France – which is now under a conservative government – the Stability Pact is not graven on marble. The objective must be the speedy creation of room in which an anti-cyclical economic policy can operate. We must not, of course, lose sight of the need to limit debt, and countries cannot be allowed to escape being penalised by higher interest rates on their proliferating debts when they make themselves rich at the expense of others. But, on the other hand, stability policy must not just be about the value of money, and must not impair society's social equilibrium."@en1
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