Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-25-Speech-1-070"
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"en.20041025.13.1-070"2
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"Mr President, I would like to begin by thanking Mr Lipietz for his work as rapporteur for this report and all the honourable Members of Parliament who have spoken and who have been involved in debating and discussing it before today’s plenary session for the contributions they have made to it, and I would naturally also like to congratulate the President of the European Central Bank, Mr Trichet, on the excellent quality of the report we are debating today.
There has been much agreement during the debate, and this is reflected in the report and has been expressed by the majority of Members who have spoken. Firstly, the success of Economic and Monetary Union; 2003 was the fifth year of Economic and Monetary Union, and over these five years price stability has improved significantly; interest rates have fallen and the economy’s financing conditions are much more stable and satisfactory than they would have been if we had not decided to take the extraordinarily important step of creating an Economic and Monetary Union and creating a single currency with a system enshrining the independent status of the European Central Bank.
I also agree with those who have stated that macroeconomic stability, healthy macroeconomic policies, price stability and low interest rates are a necessary condition, but do not by themselves explain the state of growth in the European Union, particularly in 2003, referred to in the report we are debating today, but also during 2004.
Macroeconomic stability, healthy macroeconomic policies, the independence of the European Central Bank, are necessary conditions, but they are not sufficient. And we will of course have the opportunity to debate it from next week. The revitalisation of the Lisbon strategy; new impetus for structural reforms, in accordance with the objectives and guidelines agreed in March 2000, are essential to achieving sustained and stable growth in a European Union which must not only grow, but which, furthermore, must do so in stable conditions, promoting social cohesion and the sustainability of our growth and of our model of growth.
I am also pleased and this has been demonstrated in the report and in some of your speeches – with the dialogue amongst the institutions, the debate we are holding today being a good example of that. Independence is not incompatible with dialogue. And respect for the roles of each of the Institutions, which form part of the Economic and Monetary Union, helps to make this dialogue fruitful and ensures that it takes place under the best possible conditions, today being an example of that.
I would like to make some specific comments, Mr President. Firstly, the Stability and Growth Pact remains fully in force and there are certain phrases in the report’s explanatory statement which could give the impression that the serious political conflict in the Council in November 2003 had mortally wounded that Pact. But as we discussed here last month, the Pact is in force; the European Constitution has just ratified the broad stability objectives in terms of deficit and debt, the framework for economic governance is still the one decided upon at the beginning of Economic and Monetary Union. What we need to do is improve its application, as Mr Trichet has said and, in any event, discuss whether on the basis of our experience and application of the Stability and Growth Pact over recent years, there are possibilities for improving its implementation, not in order to change the objectives of stability and growth, but in order to turn it into reality in a more effective and consistent manner than we have managed so far.
Secondly, I would like to make a comment
as Mr Trichet would say, on the one and two cent coins. The notes fall within the competence of the European Central Bank, and Mr Trichet will say what he needs to say on behalf of the Bank. Euro coins and their denominations fall within the competence of the Council – which established what those coins are in a Regulation – and of the Commission – which must ensure regulations are complied with. And regardless of the decisions taken, or to be taken in the future, in certain Member States of the eurozone, the one and two cent coins remain legal tender and that is laid down in the regulations and it is the Commission’s duty to ensure that remains the case in the future.
Finally, a comment on the economic situation mentioned by Mr Trichet. Tomorrow, following the meeting of the College of Commissioners here in Strasbourg, I will have the opportunity to communicate the Commission's autumn economic forecasts to Parliament and to the public via the media, taking account of something we are going to debate shortly, which is the clearly not positive, in fact negative, impact of the rise in oil prices we have been experiencing over recent months."@en1
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