Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-15-Speech-3-124"
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"en.20040915.6.3-124"2
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"Mr President, I should like to join in congratulating Mr Almunia, who has made a valiant attempt to breathe new life into the stranded Growth and Stability Pact. I should also like to congratulate, and thank, Mr Zalm, Chairman of the Ecofin Council, for the fact that, indeed, he has not remained stuck in the past, and like Mr Lagendijk, I would not like to be the one to resolve past issues either. What I do hope, though, is that he does not only act out of self-interest and on the basis of tactical considerations, but that, in terms of substance, he is now also convinced that it is important economically speaking to place more emphasis on the growth element of the Pact. I would also like to note that my group very much appreciates the fact that you have indicated a wish to continue the debate with our Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. I think it is important for us in the European Parliament to be involved in this too.
As far as content is concerned, clearly, my group is positive about the direction that the Commission document is taking. We have always called for a better balance to be struck between the objectives for growth and stability. We would like to put a stop to the conflict of, on the one hand, ambitious Lisbon objectives and, on the other hand, budget standards that have been set too low over a longer recession period in order to be able to invest in renewed economic growth. It is absurd that, for example, in Portugal, expenditure for research and development and education is being cut rather than increased and that Greece is being punished – another example of a country exceeding its budget – in connection with those splendid Olympic Games which we all thoroughly enjoyed. Even in my own country, I can give the example of the discussion with local governments about the way in which they are permitted to fund investments out of the reserves. That would be positive for growth if it were not for the fact that they would be faced with an investment ban if the budget shortage of 3% were exceeded, which is absurd at this stage. My group therefore supports a Growth Pact that is formulated more precisely. I should like to bring you two elements at this stage.
First of all, I am keen to hear your views about the golden rule. As you know, in the United Kingdom, of all places, a country outside the eurozone, a very strong appeal is being made to draw the distinction between current budget spending and investment spending. Your objection had always been that those boundaries cannot be clearly marked. My appeal would not be to leave this also to the resourcefulness of the national finance ministers individually, but, in fact, to find out whether we cannot extract common standards from the Lisbon objectives, the broad economic guidelines, and hopefully soon also the opinion of Wim Kok’s high-level group. My argument is that we would then be able to transform those many fine commitments of Lisbon and of subsequent summits into real investment and growth plans.
Secondly, I would propose to implement this in multi-annual plans complying with the deadline of 2010 or later. What do you think of the idea of writing off that growth and those growth investments over several years, so that they are not included in the 3% standard on an annual basis?
I would like to hear from you whether you are prepared to conduct discussions of this kind in the Ecofin Council, and I hope that, in doing so, we can get the pact back on its two feet, which it needs, namely stability and growth."@en1
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