Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-12-14-Speech-1-165"
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"en.20091214.18.1-165"2
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"Madam President, I am pleased to have the opportunity to say a few words on the proposed microfinance facility. Earlier, we spoke about the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund and how it can assist redundant workers in certain sectors. The microfinance facility is another piece in the jigsaw where the EU, in this case, is trying to ensure access to micro-credit for those who would not be able to access that credit from what we might define as the normal or usual financial institutions. This would enable them to set up their own business and promote entrepreneurship.
In this context, I am pleased to see that credit unions, cooperative banks and other mutual financial institutions can operate the fund, because they are often closer to those who may wish to access this particular facility. Indeed, I do not know about elsewhere, but in Ireland, the only financial institution left standing that did not require taxpayers’ money to sustain it was the credit union movement, which is a not-for-profit institution run by its members.
When we speak of social inclusion as part of EU social policy, we need to ensure that, by our actions, social inclusion is integral to the decisions we take, and this programme has social inclusion written all over it. In this context, I want to express my extreme disappointment that after three trialogues, we were unable to reach agreement on the source of funding for this facility.
In my opinion, the Swedish Presidency did not seem to have the facility to have any meaningful negotiations on the matter. I do not know about you but, as I said, I was very disappointed that a figure of at most EUR 40 million over three years for 27 Member States was all that divided us. Obviously, many finance ministers did not support real negotiation. I could not help but think that many of those same ministers allocated billions to support banks, but were unable to support other financial institutions that would provide micro-credit to those who have lost their jobs and who would have difficulty in accessing credit from the same banks that have been saved."@en1
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