Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-12-14-Speech-1-185"
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"en.20091214.18.1-185"2
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"Madam President, three and a half million people lost their jobs in the European Union in the past year. EUR 100 million is not going to turn that situation around. In fact, when you consider that one hundred million people are employed by SMEs, it only comes to one euro per employee. Nevertheless, it is a start, and it is to be welcomed because, as Commissioner Špidla pointed out, financing is the biggest issue at hand.
To illustrate that: I became aware at the weekend of a situation where a company, which had a significant order delayed for three months, went to its bank – the bank it had been dealing with for 15 years – for bridging finance. It was refused. The company director was told that if he took out a mortgage on his own dwelling house, then they would allow him. He did this, and a week later he got a letter withdrawing the overdraft facility on the grounds that they were now in a high-risk situation. The result was that the company closed down and 10 more people were made redundant.
That brings me to a point which my colleague, Marian Harkin, mentioned, that, as far as possible, this funding should go to non-commercial banks like credit unions which, in my country anyway, are in every town and do tremendous work, whereas all the anecdotal evidence would suggest that the commercial banks, even with the finance they were getting from the European Investment Bank, are not giving it out but rather keeping it to shore up their own financial situation.
For those two reasons, I think we should be very careful of not so much where the money comes from, but where it goes to. If it goes to the right people, then it would be the best money we will spend perhaps for a long time here at European level.
Finally, I would like to respond to the rather ill-advised comments by the Earl when he spoke about the begging hand. This is not about a begging hand. This is about helping those to help others to create employment and to stay in employment. We are very proud and glad that we joined the euro, and we will be staying."@en1
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