Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-11-17-Speech-1-071"
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"en.20081117.21.1-071"2
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"Mr President, if we had a common literary reference framework in Europe, I would begin my speech with a quote from a great Swedish poet:
. The meter is alexandrine with a caesura. Both rapporteurs make the assessment that the monetary union has been a success. As a result they are helping to create a myth surrounding the euro that is not anchored in critical Western thinking.
The truth about the euro is quite different. Firstly, its first ten years have entailed enormous costs in the form of reduced growth and increased unemployment. Secondly, the monetary union has not been tested in hard times until now. Research points to the fact that the effect on the volume of foreign trade could be fairly large, perhaps even 3–4% of GNP. On the other hand, it is apparent that the socio-economic profit from this increase in trade is very modest, perhaps 3–5 per mille of GNP, which is a one-off profit. This negligible increase in prosperity has been gained at the expense of the Euro Zone countries not having been able to conduct an independent monetary and finance policy. Germany went into this monetary union with a heavily over-valued currency and has lived with a high rate of interest and too restrictive a finance policy.
The costs have been considerable, and so how is it going now? The story that has been put together is that the countries of the Euro Zone have united forcefully and have led the fight against the financial crisis. As everyone knows, this is a myth. It was the United Kingdom, which is outside the monetary union, and Gordon Brown who took the initiative. The Euro Zone followed on afterwards."@en1
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