Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-13-Speech-2-039"
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"en.20090113.5.2-039"2
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"It is regrettable that we are not taking advantage of this opportunity for an in-depth examination of the consequences of implementing neoliberal and monetarist policies – using the euro as an excuse – which have contributed to the current serious social situation and to increasing inequality, unemployment, precarious and poorly paid work, and poverty.
It is unacceptable that we are holding onto ideological dogmas, such as price stability and the irrational criteria of the Stability and Growth Pact, which are being used as a pretext in order to pursue privatisation and remove responsibility for social functions from the state. This approach also involves the idea of the minimal state and the greater efficiency of the private sector, with the aim of imposing acceptance of so-called wage restraint, which actually results in low, nominal wage rises and even a reduction in real wages, as the Portuguese case regrettably clearly demonstrates.
We cannot agree with the false independence of the European Central Bank, which is dragging its heels on the decisions to reduce interest rates and which is keeping the euro overvalued solely to protect those countries with more developed economies and the more powerful economic and financial groups, thus worsening the hardships of the more fragile economies and those people with fewer financial resources.
This European Central Bank policy has resulted in the contraction of the European economy, clearly demonstrating the need for further reductions in the reference interest rates. As the purchasing power of workers, the retired and pensioners has fallen over the last 10 years, the profits of economic and financial groups have reached their highest level in 30 years, resulting in the joy and satisfaction that we have heard in this Chamber. Even now, in the crisis situation that they have caused, what they are doing is nationalising the damage in order to then privatise the profits, whilst workers, micro- and small entrepreneurs, the retired and the unemployed suffer the consequences of the crisis, with the right, in the best-case scenario, only to a few scraps. Look at what is happening in the financial sector, where certain banks have already increased their spreads more than once since the start of the financial crisis and where the margin charged has doubled in the space of a year, thereby penalising new credit even more.
We therefore insist on the urgent need for a proper break with these neoliberal and monetarist policies, putting an end to the Stability Pact, tax havens and the false independence of the European Central Bank. We therefore insist on the need to significantly increase the EU budget based on a fair distribution of income and wealth, so that there is a real policy of economic and social cohesion and so that we reject measures that are just more of the same, in other words ‘save yourself if you can’ measures, allowing the richest to become ever richer and the poor to become ever poorer, as clearly demonstrated by the increasing inequalities and disparities among the euro area economies.
We therefore insist on the need to support production and micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises; to promote quality public services; to facilitate credit and improve the purchasing power of families, and not just the most disadvantaged, but also the middle classes; to create more jobs, and to reduce the poverty and misery of millions of people in our countries."@en1
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