Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-04-22-Speech-4-040"
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"en.20040422.2.4-040"2
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"Madam President, as this is the final debate on the broad economic policy guidelines of this Parliament, perhaps we could carry out a more general survey.
Of course, the term 'European economic policy' which we use is somewhat misleading. The Union does not have primary responsibility on this matter nor, unfortunately, does it acquire it under the new draft Constitution. Primary responsibility lies with the Member States. The Union simply intervenes in a coordinating capacity. Where the Union has responsibility, in monetary policy, we have indisputably seen immense success with the introduction and stabilisation of the single currency. Unfortunately, we cannot also say the same of the management of the real economy. Growth rates have remained low and unemployment has remained at correspondingly high levels. The recession in the real economy has led to a crisis in public finances, with huge deficits appearing in major economies, resulting in collapse due to failure to apply the Stability Pact.
25 November 2003 should have released us from the Stability Pact. Instead, however, we returned to the same tired debates about how to revive it, instead of finding ways to get out of the stagnation of the European economy. There are, of course, two ways. One is a common, truly European policy, within the framework of a mixed economy. We must stop worshiping the market, which has failed miserably because, if you take the 30 years after the Second World War, the mixed economy achieved full employment and high rates of growth. If you take the next 30 years, during which the doctrine of the free economy has triumphed, full employment has collapsed and the European economy has stagnated and weakened. It is time we returned to more logical principles, to a mixed economy like that which served us so well in the post-war years.
They tell us that unemployment is structural and that, in order to cure it, we need to take structural measures. This simply means measures against the workers. I would reply to this that the lack of investment is structural and that we should act against speculation on the money markets, which has paralysed the investment mechanism. If we could find a new alliance of social forces, then we could really bring the European economy back to its old levels. If we cannot find this alliance, then the European economy is condemned to stagnation and, ultimately, to becoming a satellite of the US economy. It is time we realised this."@en1
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