Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-18-Speech-3-251"
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"en.20080618.23.3-251"2
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"Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner Piebalgs, ladies and gentlemen, let us show some imagination. All the ideas that seek to limit the maximum rate of VAT, including that proposed by President Sarkozy of France, are worthy enough and should be investigated, and I would like to put forward one of my own.
Oil is a fossil fuel with a limited life-span and high oil prices are an irreversible and long-term trend. However, what is causing all the problems, apart from the price hike itself, is the sudden and dramatic way in which huge fluctuations in the global price per barrel of crude oil are affecting our economies. I therefore wonder whether the European Union, without concealing the realities associated with the actual price increase, could not ensure price stability according to an annual cycle so that public budget departments, and especially those run by Member States for their tax systems and those established at local government level, along with companies and businesses that are engaged in contractual relationships tied to the price of oil and, more generally, the ordinary citizens who have to draw up their family budgets could all be better prepared for the major changes taking place in the energy sector without suffering the daily pressures that come from the sudden fluctuations in oil prices that stem from global exchange rates, speculation and the euro/dollar parity.
It is against this backdrop, Commissioner, that I propose examining the possibility of creating a Community instrument whose aim would be to guarantee the price of crude oil per barrel in accordance with the generally accepted budget cycle of one year. Such an instrument could use the financial technique of buying and selling options on the world market and would prove useful as a way to combat speculation.
In 2005, when the price was 50 dollars a barrel, I asked you for your opinion on the subject, Commissioner Piebalgs, and you replied that this idea was interesting, considering that the Commission did not have the power to control crude oil prices, particularly since the oil market is a global one. I must however be insistent on this point, because such a Community instrument, which would operate as a zero sum game in the long term and require practically no financing whatsoever, would at the very least warrant investigation, not – I repeat – as a means for opposing the laws of the free market to which we are subjected but as a way to control the suddenness with which they are imposed on us and to reduce the impact that increased oil prices have all along the price chain in the sectors concerned. The situation in the fisheries industry, which we will be debating in a moment, is a significant case in point."@en1
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