Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-11-18-Speech-2-271"
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"en.20081118.29.2-271"2
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"Mr President, I should like to congratulate the President of the Commission: this was the first time the Commission has been represented at such a summit and it is, indeed, very welcome.
I would also like to congratulate the President-in-Office, not only on the excellent work that he has done for the French presidency, but also on his reward, at the presidency of the
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If 1989 was a decisive victory for the free market economy, then 2008 must be the year in which we remind ourselves of Adam Smith’s warning that unbridled free markets have their limits. Adam Smith, in the
foresaw many things, and there are many lessons there for us in what he said.
My group welcomes the success of the G20 meeting. We welcome its commitment to a shared belief that market principles, open trade and investment regimes and effectively regulated financial markets foster the dynamism, innovation and entrepreneurship that is essential for economic growth, employment and the fight against poverty.
After 1929, countries made the mistake of seeking individual salvation. This time we have recognised that salvation must come collectively. Many of the measures proposed in the Commission’s work programme for 2009 will help us on that road. I congratulate the Commission on that work programme, especially on the plan to ensure regulation and oversight and transparency of financial actors and significant capital market investors. Free markets thrive on transparency and honesty.
In the current difficulties, some are still seeking scapegoats. They are arguing that warning bells were not sounded. But they were! Otto Graf Lambsdorff and Jacques Delors and others wrote a letter to the Slovenian presidency very early this year warning of the dangers of the overheating of the world economy. Jean-Claude Juncker reminded us last night, in his excellent speech in our debate on the 10th anniversary of the euro, that the Eurogroup made a number of representations to the Americans and others about the dangers that we were facing. Liberal Democrats are not going to waste time looking for the guy who failed to spot the iceberg: we will concentrate on getting people into lifeboats.
We are concerned by one aspect, however, of the European Union and the G20’s response. Our Heads of State and Government appear to believe that we can go back to business as before, that all that is needed is economic growth. I fear they simply have not understood so many of the lessons of the last 30 years in politics. The recession should be a good time to take stock. Even with the recession, world GDP is forecast to double in the next 20 years, and yet that growth is based on finite resources, on failing to factor in the cost of waste, and on another coal-fired power station in China every week.
The Presidency Note of 28 October to inform the EU’s preparatory summit on 7 November had four innovation points. One of them was about sustainability. It said that internationally coordinated macroeconomic responses, based on promotion of environmental investments, including in developing countries, are important. Well, clearly, some minister or official in the French presidency has been doing some joined-up thinking. But that did not get into the agreed language which passed for the conclusions of the preparatory summit, which talked only about climate change in one sentence in a list of other challenges. Nor did it get into the G20 conclusions, other than as the penultimate point in the penultimate point, which talked about examples of other critical challenges, mentioning climate change as No 2.
There is no contradiction between Keynes and fighting climate change. A modern-day Maynard Keynes would put people back to work installing solar panels and wind generators on every house in Europe, fostering innovation and providing jobs simultaneously. A modern-day Roosevelt, seeing that we have a global economy of which the contours are drawn in the computer campuses of West Coast America, the factories of China and the coal centres of India, would have us seek a global culture, global governance and a coherent vision of global concern. That is the way forward. It will never again be business as before."@en1
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"Autorité des marchés financiers"1
"Wealth of Nations"1
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