Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-22-Speech-3-025"
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"en.20090422.4.3-025"2
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"Madam President, our rapporteurs are not to blame, but I do believe that the Commission’s proposals have come rather late in the day and are no match for what has taken place. To prevent any further crisis, we obviously need to be much more ambitious and more pro-active.
We have to be more ambitious and more pro-active in the area of regulation, firstly. We have to harmonise our legislation, and the most powerful signal would undoubtedly be to provide ourselves with a European regulator. That is ultimately the way to make a statement.
In terms of rating agencies, we need to create European agencies whose independence is guaranteed and to put a stop to this scandalous business of seeing agencies rate businesses that pay them.
Regarding hedge funds, we need to regulate them and to devise a form of taxation that penalises all short-term financial transactions.
Lastly, as regards tax havens, some very simple measures must be taken. We have to ban any banks that perform transactions with tax havens or that refuse to cooperate from operating in Europe.
That is all for now. However, I do believe that we need to go further, and I should like here to suggest two courses of action. The first is that we must, in my view, give thought to enlarging the euro zone and to integrating new members. This political gesture would probably be as powerful as the reunification of Germany was in its day, and it would show the solidarity that exists within Europe and would increase the influence of our Union.
Finally, the second is that we must progress towards economic, budgetary and monetary integration, and towards tax harmonisation, which is the only way to combat fiscal dumping in Europe.
All of this is necessary, but what our fellow citizens expect most of all – and I hope that the Commission is listening – is for us to take action in response to the crisis. Our fellow citizens are still waiting for a true European recovery plan and, for example, a substantial loan. They are still waiting for Europe to offer proper support to our SMEs, to genuinely plan investments for the future and, above all, to support all those in Europe who are affected by the crisis. I am thinking of the unemployed, of those working part time, and of the households that are experiencing huge difficulties at the moment.
This, in my view, is where the urgency lies and this is what Europe’s leaders will be judged on in the future."@en1
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