Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-02-Speech-2-135"
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"en.20020702.6.2-135"2
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".
Mr President, I shall make this brief. I would first of all like to welcome the opportunity to take part in this debate on the presentation of the Annual Report of the European Central Bank.
I should like to thank Parliament, and in particular the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and its rapporteur, Mrs Kauppi, for her excellent report. The Commission fully agrees with many of the points of view contained in the report such as, in particular, its positive assessment of the policy of the European Central Bank.
I shall only refer to two points from today’s debate, which are of particular interest to the Commission.
First, the role of the Stability and Growth Pact in the current process. We believe the Pact has contributed to a favourable reaction by budgetary policies during the recent slowdown. Countries that had already reached a balanced fiscal position have been able to use automatic stabilisers to absorb the effects of reduced growth. Contrary to other situations, meanwhile, no country in debt has implemented unjustified expansionist fiscal policies. Furthermore, the Member States have been able to continue with their fiscal reform policies which will undoubtedly help to eliminate supply rigidity.
In general, I would say that the policy of the first few years of Economic and Monetary Union has contributed to economic growth and to our macroeconomic stability.
More recently, a combination of monetary policy favourable to growth and a slightly more flexible fiscal policy has sustained cyclical recovery. The lack of fiscal consolidation in the year 2000, however, when economic growth was flourishing, was at the root of some of the obstacles we are currently faced with, in particular in the most indebted countries. We therefore believe that our immediate main objective is to continue with fiscal consolidation and structural reform to enable us to improve our capacity for growth.
Secondly, with regard to the euro and its impact on pricing, using quarterly data, Eurostat has come to the conclusion that in the first quarter of 2002, the inflationary impact of the euro was 0.16% in comparison with the final quarter of 2001. This figure should, however, be used with caution. First, because it is difficult to make these calculations; secondly, because, although this overall figure is correct, we believe there are unusually high increments for certain goods and services that are consumed regularly, which gives citizens the impression that the increase has been far greater; and thirdly, because it is equally true that the euro should, in the medium term, contribute to improving the competitive environment and economic efficiency, thus bringing down consumer prices.
That is all I have to say this afternoon. I shall now hand over to the President of the European Central Bank, Mr Duisenberg, who I expect will have something to add."@en1
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