Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-07-Speech-3-028"
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"en.20080507.11.3-028"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that the many calm words contained in the lengthy report tabled here offer reassurance, but only up to a point: the fact remains that we would need only to listen to what our citizens made of this technical report with its 32-page bibliography. We only need to talk to people, women in the home and pensioners anywhere in Europe, in Italy, France or wherever, to know that people are finding it hard to make ends meet.
We need to start by focusing on the problems of the real economy and on the impact that the euro and the ECB policies have had on our workers and producers, starting with small and medium-sized enterprises, which are struggling under the weight of policies liable to draw specific, constructive criticism, and such criticism is necessary in the interests of our citizens and the economies of the Member States.
For example, I have two suggestions: one, aimed at banks, is a selective lending policy, biased towards productivity and capital, as well as workers and producers. The second is to maintain and guarantee the independence of cooperative and regional banks, which, with their ‘one person, one vote’ and maximum shareholdings, are a bulwark of the real economy.
Unfortunately, the ECB – granted monetary sovereignty by the Maastricht Treaty and therefore economic sovereignty over the Member States – does not always seem to make decisions – keeping interest rates high or low, for example – that reflect the wider interests of real production and the productivity of our countries.
Therefore, we take a dim view of the fact that since the introduction of the euro, the prime lending rate has doubled. This has resulted in high bank charges, particularly in Italy. We take a dim view of the fact that it has continued its policy of reducing money supply in the internal market using any means available – such as Basel II – with the result that it has stifled consumption and internal trade throughout Europe.
We are calling for Europe’s prime objective to be placing the European Central Bank under the control of the political institutions. There must be political control of the European Central Bank and its activities, because the question – which European citizens are asking their banks and which we are repeating – is this: who is the ECB’s policy helping? We will leave you to ponder the answer."@en1
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