Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-03-Speech-4-007"
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"en.20030703.1.4-007"2
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".
Mr President, first of all, I wish to thank Mr Blokland for his report, which addresses all aspects of the European Central Bank’s annual report. The Commission is pleased to see Parliament undertaking this activity, which contributes to our joint efforts to improve the framework of macroeconomic policy in the Union and, especially, in the Eurozone. The report clearly pursues the approach adopted in previous years and contains numerous aspects with which the Commission fully agrees. There is no doubt that the euro has been an enormous success and we must all thank the European Central Bank for the hard work it has carried out to achieve this.
The Commission also considers that the Central Bank has done an excellent job in recent years with regard to its basic task, which is to ensure price stability, and we also share the concerns at the inadequate structural reforms and at the fiscal consolidation that is taking place in Europe. Nevertheless, my position is rather more circumspect on some points. Firstly, with regard to the Central Bank’s mandate, the Treaty makes this mandate quite clear: to maintain price stability. It is true that the Bank is also asked to support the general policies of the Community, but this must be done without undermining the aim of stability. Mr Blokland’s report appears to suggest a rather different interpretation of the mandate, and this aspect was highlighted by the Commission last month, when the report was debated in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.
Secondly, the report calls for the Central Bank to take action in other areas for which we do not believe it has a mandate. It calls on the Bank, for example, to back the denomination of energy supplies and commodities in euros. On this point, the Commission’s position is the same as the Bank’s in that it should be neutral with regard to the international use of the euro.
Lastly, Mr Blokland’s report assesses the European Central Bank’s management of its budget. From the formal point of view and without having access to the latest audit report covering 2001, this assessment might, in our opinion, be somewhat premature. In any event, I wish to thank him for his comments and say that I am particularly pleased to be here in Parliament, particularly on such a special day, with Mr Duisenberg present."@en1
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