Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-11-17-Speech-1-069"
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"en.20081117.21.1-069"2
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"Mr President, Mr President of the Eurogroup, Commissioner, on behalf of my group, I should also like to thank Mrs Berès and Mr Langen for the important report they have submitted to us. With its 62 paragraphs and 14 dense pages, it provides much food for thought. I should like to take advantage of the President of the Eurogroup’s and the Commissioner’s presence to share with them, again, on behalf of my group, several remarks that, in our view, deserve to be examined more fully than is the case in the report.
The first remark concerns the euro exchange rate policy. I admit that I still do not understand whether or not there is an exchange rate policy for the euro in relation to the other international currencies and whether, at the G20 or elsewhere, there is a discussion about the way in which the United States’ very substantial deficits are going to continue to be financed.
My second remark relates to the topic of coordination. I believe that the euro is a success, particularly from a political point of view, because it gives the European Union the status of a political power. However, I also believe that its coordination is not working very well, and this, at least, on three points.
The first point is the issue of taxation. You know what the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance’s opinion is on this matter: we are in favour of tax competition within the Union, but fair tax competition. We believe that we are lagging too far behind when it comes to combating tax havens, including within the European Union, and we believe that we are lagging too far behind when it comes to extending the Directive on savings income.
With regard to the issue of budget policy coordination – which is the second point – I note that the Member States are all embarking on ‘revival’ plans. At European level, I hear Mr Strauss-Kahn say, for example, that 1% of the Community’s GDP needs to be pledged, a figure that represents practically the entire EU budget for one year. Where do we stand with regard to that point of view? I believe that the coordination effort is not going very well and I also believe that the responses you are providing with regard to the revisited Stability and Growth Pact are neither sufficient nor a match for the challenge awaiting us.
Lastly, the third point on which coordination seems to me to be poor and insufficient is the wage policy conducted within the various EU countries. In reality, Germany has built up its strong performance over the past 10 years by practising a wage policy that, in view of the size of the German economy, is responsible for the overall momentum of the Euro Zone. I believe that this presents a problem in terms of the level of internal demand and of the level of wages for a number of job categories, not to mention the problem of job insecurity.
On these three points, Mr President of the Eurogroup, I shall expect, from yourself and from the Council of finance ministers that you represent, more ambition for the future, since we are also talking about the challenges to come."@en1
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