Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-22-Speech-2-049"
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"en.20050222.4.2-049"2
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"Mr President, this is a constructive report by Mr Goebbels and the committee that presented it. I also wish to thank Commissioner Almunia for a thoughtful contribution and for his commitment to a reform of the Stability and Growth Pact, as presented.
My contribution in this House today will focus upon two of the most important issues for Europe. The Conservatives and Liberals here in Parliament focus upon structural reforms – about which we are prepared to negotiate, I should like to say – not only in the European Parliament but also in our individual states. The Socialist Group in the European Parliament, of which I am the President, does not oppose reforms. We want to see the correct reforms. I would add one thing, however: Europe’s main problems do not only include the need for structural reforms; its second big problem is that demand in our countries is too low.
I would make a genuine and urgent appeal to the leaders of the right-of-centre European parties. My personal experience as a prime minister and as a party president in Europe is that we do not get our people’s support for reforms if there is not simultaneous demand and growth in our societies; or, to put it another way: there can be no successful reforms without economic growth, and no sustainable economic growth without reforms. I would therefore make a very urgent appeal for the European dimension to be introduced. What is the European dimension? What the European dimension genuinely involves is our learning to do things simultaneously. There is a shortage of demand in the internal market, and this is something that we can remedy at the same time if all the finance ministers, together with Mr Almunia, decide to invest in the Lisbon objectives over the next four years. In that way, we should obtain the extra growth we need. We have documented matters, and it would be fantastic if the right-of-centre parties too here in Parliament could appreciate that we must invest and that we must implement reforms and that we must do these things simultaneously."@en1
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