Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-22-Speech-2-025"
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"en.20050222.4.2-025"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, where European economic policy is concerned, we could of course continue on the same course. We could continue, on the pretext of allegedly necessary structural reforms, to tear Europe’s social structures apart, to force the unions to their knees with threats of high unemployment and ever more low-grade jobs, exposing more and more public services to market forces and thus limiting the services that are offered to those that the private sector can make a profit from. And we could also create a situation, thanks to a further round of tax dumping, whereby an employee on average earnings will soon be contributing more to the public purse than many a European company with profits running into billions.
Although we could, of course, continue along this path and be guaranteed plaudits from those who gain from a policy of this kind, we should not try to fool the people of Europe into believing that this policy will promote growth and employment. Who could seriously believe that the extended working hours for which the report calls will create additional jobs instead of destroying yet more? Who could seriously believe that further cuts in public investment will boost internal demand as opposed to sending more small and medium-sized enterprises to the wall? Who could seriously believe, on the basis of our experience to date of privatisation, that it increases employment rather than cutting it?
It is true to say that the economic performance of most countries in Europe is unimpressive, but it is a lie to suggest that the cause for this is a lack of competitiveness. Labour costs have fallen in many European countries in recent years; this trend has been particularly marked in Germany, where employees have had to accept an average cut in real wages of over 2% in the course of the last 12 months.
Has this meant that a particularly large number of jobs has been created in Germany? Quite the opposite! The unemployment rate has hit a new record high. The same, though, is true for exports, and not just in Germany. I say that because the only thing that the political priorities set out in the report before us can achieve is a further increase in the investment returns of European global players and export companies. That might please the European Round Table of Industrialists, but for most people it is a disaster. My group will never agree to a policy of this kind, but we will do everything we can to encourage opposition to it."@en1
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