Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-11-17-Speech-1-070"
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"en.20081117.21.1-070"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 10 years after the introduction of monetary union, Europe finds itself in a major crisis. Banks are collapsing, or are being propped up with billions from national budgets; the market is collapsing, and millions of people are afraid for their jobs and their future.
It is not only the market that has failed: the prevailing policy seems unable to learn from its mistakes. We take the view that serious mistakes were made in setting up Economic and Monetary Union. One of those mistakes was the structural separation of monetary and fiscal policy: one cannot create a common currency without at the same time harmonising taxation and expenditure policy, at least in broad outlines. It seems to me that the economic imbalances within the Euro Zone have increased enormously. What we now need is, indeed, better coordination of economic, and in particular taxation, policy. We need effective measures to combat tax dumping; tax havens also need to be closed and movements of capital finally need to be controlled again.
The second serious mistake, in our view, lies in the structure of the Stability and Growth Pact. In times like these, anybody who thinks that budget consolidation is essential is obviously living in another world: nothing would be more disastrous than responding to this economic crisis, at this point, with obvious saving programmes. The stability pact has clearly proven that it has failed. It should be replaced by an integrated European strategy for solidarity and sustainable development. In our opinion, we need an investment offensive to renew public infrastructure and to improve the lives of socially disadvantaged groups in Europe.
The third mistake, in our view, lies in the structure of the European Central Bank itself, which is not subject to any democratic supervision and which has as its sole objective price stability. We would advocate introducing democratic supervision for the European Central Bank, and we also call for the ECB’s monetary policy mandate to be adjusted so that, in future, growth and employment have to be given at least the same weight as price stability.
The current crisis is also an opportunity for far-reaching reform of the European monetary and financial architecture. This opportunity must not just be frittered away."@en1
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