Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-21-Speech-2-063"
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"en.20081021.7.2-063"2
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, at the weekend, we saw what was indeed a historic image. We saw the worst President of the United States in living memory flanked by an effective President of the European Union and a President of the European Commission who is on course to see reason on the subject of European internal market policy.
Mr Barroso, in a belated echo of his Trotskyist, his Maoist past, speaks like a true leftist. From Mr Daul, too, I hear pure social democracy. Application forms to join the Socialist Group in the European Parliament can be found at the entrance.
I should now like to read out a quote; listen carefully, gentlemen.
‘In the past decades, some of our nations and the European Union as a whole became too regulated and protective […] This over-regulation […] undermines competitiveness …’ That was taken from the 2006 Manifesto of the European People’s Party, signed by Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Barroso and Mr Daul. Gentlemen, you came late, but the main thing is that you came.
I ask myself, when I discuss this with you: where are the ordinary citizens of the European Union in your speeches? Who is talking about the taxpayers now being burdened with the risks of this disaster? Who is talking about the purchasing power required to revive the internal market?
We are entering a period of threatened recession, if we are not already in recession. We need more purchasing power. We need not only social protection for banks but also, above all, risk protection for ordinary citizens; for, if our plans – and there is no alternative – should fail, it will be above all the ordinary citizens of the European Union, the workers, who have to pay. This is why we want to establish the same protection for these citizens as we have done for the big banks, by means of more rules, of more supervision, and indeed also of State protection. This is the central requirement, above all in Member States.
This was indeed a historic moment, and indeed a great opportunity for Europe to take its rightful place in international politics. The policies of the Bush administration, of the total deregulation of world markets, of complete
where anyone can take any measure whatsoever anywhere, is now bankrupt, and Europe has the opportunity to fill the resulting vacuum with a new, more social, economic order in Europe and worldwide. This is the task that lies ahead of us, and it is indeed a historic one.
I should also like to paraphrase the words of Angela Merkel at the 2000 CDU party conference: the State must take a back seat in the economic and social policy fields. I disagree: the State should not take a back seat, it should intervene more, should carry out more supervision in economic matters. I am obliged to Mr Barroso and Mr Sarkozy for affirming that we need more rules, not fewer; we need more supervision, not less. You are on the right track. Therefore I say to you that you will also be on the right track if – and you will have our support in this – you do not allow the climate package, which indeed has the potential to create jobs, and enables sustainable economic management, to be played off against the financial crisis in the current situation.
As Jean-Claude Juncker rightly said, the financial crisis will pass, but the climate crisis, sadly, will remain. That is why it is a mistake to play one off against the other. You are right, however, Mr Sarkozy, that this too must be solved on the basis of mutual solidarity of the stronger with the weaker and also of the cooperation of all of us, both here in Parliament and in the Council.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to express my sincere thanks – including specifically to the President for giving me one minute longer. The clear position of the PSE Group remains that, in this crisis, the values on which we have always been prevented from obtaining a majority in this House are now on the agenda. If you now give us your support, you will have finally learned your lesson, but you must admit that it has been thanks to the mistakes made by you, above all, that we do not yet have the rules that we need.
Mr Sarkozy, the first steps have been good. You have taken the measures necessary in the crisis, and so our group supports you in this regard. I shall not conceal the fact that we are impressed, including with the resolve shown by you and – I shall spell it out – Mr Barroso himself, although not by his Commission.
While I am on the subject of taking opportunities, we must precede the actions that are now necessary with the words ‘never again’ What happened on these markets must never be repeated. A line needs to be drawn under the disaster of the international financial markets, and the crisis of the real economy this triggered. That must not happen again.
To ensure that this is the case, we need new rules. These new rules also need to come from you, Mr Barroso. In a minute, my colleague Mr Rasmussen will describe in specific terms what we expect of you. We expect the proposals you have just announced by the end of the year, as we need to act quickly. We do not have much time.
If we act quickly, rules will take centre stage: not just rules for banks, but also the necessary rules for hedge funds and for private equity. We decided this here a few weeks ago with great unanimity.
Today I have heard social democratic speaking: Nicolas Sarkozy, long-standing leader of the UMP, conservative French President, speaks like a veritable European socialist."@en1
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