Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-02-Speech-2-136"
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"en.20020702.6.2-136"2
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". – Mr President, firstly, I wish to join Mrs Kauppi in paying my respects to the late Pierre Werner, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, whom we will never forget. When I presented Mr Werner on 2 January with a commemorative fountain pen to celebrate, underline and thank him for his contribution to European Union, he could no longer speak, but the tears falling down his cheeks said more than any words could do.
To end with Mr Goebbels' question, as far as regulation of financial markets is concerned, the ECB fully supports the financial services action plan and will do everything in its power to promote the implementation of the plan and promote the further harmonisation of regulations concerning capital market instruments, so that we get a more transparent and comparable capital market in Europe.
As regards supervision, the ECB will do everything in its power to fulfil its Treaty mandate to promote the smooth conduct of supervisory practices. However, I have to remind you that this is the only mandate that the Treaty gives to the ECB, not the supervisory practice itself, or the formulation of the regulations that are in force. We can promote it, we can smooth its path, we can act as a catalyst for good cooperation, but in principle supervision falls under the principle of subsidiarity. We will do our utmost and we are doing our utmost to achieve precisely that.
I trust that I have answered the main questions.
Several Members have again played on the theme of more transparency and, in particular, the publication of minutes or, as Mr Huhne said, at least the balance of votes in the Governing Council. I have already given a formal answer in my introductory statement, but I would like to add, in particular addressing Mr Huhne, that deciding by consensus does not mean that there is necessarily unanimity, in the sense that if there were a vote all would vote the same.
Deciding by consensus means that the conclusions reached by the Governing Council as a whole on a certain decision, in a certain direction, or to decide not to change anything, are supported by the entire Governing Council, by some more enthusiastically than others, but this does not require a vote. One always has to remember that although the members of the Governing Council come from all the Member States, they do not represent their Member States, either in the case of national central bank governors or of their central bank. They are there in a personal capacity and are completely independent.
That also applies to the decision-making process and at all costs we want to preserve the phenomenon that the Governing Council's decisions are decisions by a collegiate body and that every individual member of that body will defend and describe the outcome of certain discussions as if he had been 100% enthusiastic about those decisions. They will be supported by the entire Governing Council. We do not want to undermine that attitude in the Governing Council.
On prices and the effects of the costs of changeover, to which various Members have referred, it is true that in the public mind many of the price increases that are being observed are being attributed to the changeover to euro banknotes and coins and the rounding-off effects accompanying it. This is true in particular of the goods we purchase every day. For example, you do not pay your rent every day, so there is no problem there. You do not buy a computer every day, so there is no problem there at all, because those prices have been lowered. However, you do notice it in cafeterias, cafes or restaurants or when you try to park your car in the usual place.
Overall, statistically, Eurostat has estimated that of the 0.8% rise in inflation recorded in the first quarter of this year, between 0 and 0.16% could be attributed to the cash changeover. However, there is a difference between the perception of the people at large and the statistical facts now that, as we expected, inflation seems at last to be on the road downwards. We are aware of the latest flash estimate by Eurostat of inflation in June, which is said to be 1.7%, down 0.3% from May. Even if the final figure were to be marginally higher than 1.7% we are on a downward trend. It is also true that we at the ECB expect inflation for the remainder of this year and for next year to hover around this 2% figure and so we are in a situation where we have to be extremely vigilant with regard to the risks that the figure may exceed the 2% limit over the medium term.
There are risks, both upward and downward. The upward risks I defined as coming from the monetary developments and maybe from current wage trends if past inflation figures work their way through in new wage agreements. These risks are being mitigated – and I am grateful for this – by the recent significant appreciation of the euro and so we are weighing time and again the balance of these risks. At the last meeting of the Governing Council at the beginning of June, which was devoted to our stance on monetary policy, this led us to the conclusion that the risks are there, the mitigating effects seem to be emerging, and we must wait and see how things develop.
As regards Mr Berthu's questions on investment decisions vis-à-vis Europe, which now seem to be slightly more attractive because of the exchange rate than in the past, I would like to say that the period of huge capital outflows from Europe in particular to the United States, seems to be over, both in terms of direct and portfolio investment. There are indications that in some instances the flows have reversed and outflows have fallen sharply to say the least.
However, in determining whether Europe is an attractive place for potential investors, including foreigners, be it direct or portfolio investment, the exchange rate is only one of the considerations that are taken into account and a minor one at that. We have to create the climate in Europe by our policies, by our wage trends and by our environment, so as to make Europe a more attractive place to invest in than it has apparently been in recent years. For that reason also it is so crucial that the intentions of our heads of state and government to press on forcefully with structural reforms should be translated from words into deeds sooner, rather than later."@en1
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