Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-22-Speech-2-041"
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"en.20050222.4.2-041"2
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"Mr President, my fellow members of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats will certainly be delighted to know, given the nature of this debate, that Mr Goebbels opened up to the Luxembourg press, saying that their amendments adopted in committee reflected the ‘fundamentally reactionary and neoliberal nature of these two groups in Parliament’. The outlandish nature of these words has, of course, a somewhat laughable element: it suggests that this House is, at the very least, made up of hardcore reactionaries. Yet there is also reason to be concerned about these words. In this House, the Socialist Group willingly cultivates a certain degree of ambiguity when it comes to the principles of economic policy. With the socialists, this ambiguity turns to actual loathing.
Personally, I do not think it is superfluous to point out in this debate that the conditions for sound, sustainable development are created by sound public finance and by reasonable compulsory deductions. Stability is not an obstacle to growth; it is a prerequisite to growth.
On our side of this House, we do not succumb to the same weakness for ideological blindness. We show much greater pragmatism. There are situations in which more interventionist policies turn out to be necessary in order to reinvigorate the economy, but that is not the point here. The current situation in which Europe finds itself scarcely fits into that pattern. Having discovered Keynesianism a little too late, Mr Goebbels would like to bring it into all recipes and all sauces, even when it is not called for. Increasing supplementary budget deficits does not provide a solution to our current problems. If this were the case, the countries known for their financial and budgetary slackness would have long since been held up as the example to follow.
Lastly, it is not a crime to say that Europeans have a duty to work harder and better in order to guarantee their standard of living in the face of global competition, Mr Bullmann. The exemplary nature of the French 35-hour week says more than any lengthy discourse on the subject. Of course, Mr Goebbels put forward a number of good ideas in his report – such as encouraging certain types of investment in social services or in sustainable development – but he seems ill at ease with the crux of the issue, which is that economic efficiency follows clearly defined rules and that it is dangerous to overlook them."@en1
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