Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-19-Speech-2-218"
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"en.20080219.30.2-218"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, that is a bit of a problem. ‘We stand by the guidelines’ sounds a little dogmatic. We in the PSE Group are not so much concerned with which document we do or do not support but believe the key issue really is whether these guidelines are an answer to the real economic situation, and the key issue is whether they offer any more help in tackling the needs of the people in the European Union. That is the key issue in this debate, so once again: let the data speak for themselves.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the Eurogroup Chairman, has just announced that growth will decline, that in 2008 it will no longer be 2.7%, but 1.6%, 1.7% or 1.8%. This sounds a clear warning bell, especially because we know that the outlook in the USA was already looking gloomy at the end of 2007. At the same time inflation is forecast at 3.2%. That means a loss of prosperity, a loss of real wages, a loss of purchasing power. Obviously we fear that stagnation may go hand in hand with inflation here, and this is a warning bell.
We also know that poverty has not fallen in the European Union over the past five years, but that in fact more people are excluded from the affluent society. Research and development have reached a more or less stable level, but certainly not the 3% we need for the Lisbon Strategy, only just over half of that, at an average of 1.6%, 1.7% or 1.8% – far too low to allow us to play the international role we want to play.
We are now looking at a contradiction. Surely I cannot pretend that the integrated guidelines provide me with an instrument of governance while at the same time shaping that instrument in such a way that it does not react to economic and social data in the European Union? I cannot on the one hand stand up – obviously as President of the Commission – and make sure that nothing, not an iota of the core text of those guidelines is changed, while at the same time hoping that people in the Member States of the European Union, the employers, the employees, those who play their part in the economic process, feel that they are seeing political governance here. That is not the way to resolve this contradiction.
The Commissioners present here have told us many times what needs to be changed. Let us discuss those changes, in whatever area they apply. Where are the products, where are the changes that will also help improve the lot of the people? The Socialists support an offensive strategy, as presented in Parliament’s documents, but we want real answers that help improve the lot of the people."@en1
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