Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-12-15-Speech-2-294"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20091215.18.2-294"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the economic crisis has affected the whole of Europe. It could be said that it has affected the whole world, but here in the European Union, it has probably particularly affected the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the new Member States, for a series of reasons. Firstly, because they are obviously more fragile economies than the more mature, industrialised and consolidated economies of Western Europe, and also because they are economies which do not have a financial system in which the crisis has been generated, and have therefore been dependent on a high proportion of direct investment from outside in order to finance their growth. When the crisis erupted, and particularly when the crisis worsened in 2008, this investment came to a halt, and left these economies in need of funding in order to finance their growth, which they were unable to substitute using their savings and internal resources.
Finally I would like to mention the so-called Vienna Initiative, promoted and encouraged by the European institutions, along with international financial institutions. It has coordinated the action of the private financial system which, in many of these countries, is basically organised around Western European banks that have invested in Central and Eastern European countries and have subsidiaries and offices there.
The Vienna Initiative has meant that action could be coordinated, including maintaining the positions and risks taken by private banks in those countries. It has been possible to maintain a financial system at maximum level that helps to finance the consequences of the crisis and the investment needed to come out of the crisis. This is in the face of announcements of excessive risks taken by some Western European banks established in those countries. The truth is that so far, we have not had to mourn any ‘victims’ among those banks, but rather they have maintained a reasonable level of capitalisation and financial activity in the context of the difficult conditions that the system is operating under.
We are already seeing positive signs. We are, of course, also seeing significant challenges. This means that we have not finished. We need to continue paying specific attention to how best to use the instruments available to the European institutions in order to help these countries to set off on the path towards recovery and emerge from the crisis.
If you will allow me to give you a positive example, I will tell you about Poland, which is the only country in the European Union that is continuing to maintain positive growth and has not had negative growth at any time throughout the crisis. The only one in the whole of the European Union is a country of Central and Eastern Europe and one of the new Member States.
Finally, I would like to mention the importance of the euro as an anchor for the strategies for withstanding the blows of the crisis and emerging from it. The euro is a point of reference to guide the appropriate strategies for emerging from the crisis. There is a country in this region that joined the euro area in the middle of the crisis, Slovakia, and yesterday, the Slovakian authorities held a conference in Bratislava welcoming the way in which the euro has protected them from the worse consequences of the crisis and is helping them to get through it in much better conditions than they would have had to withstand if they did not belong to the euro area.
Another country in the region, Estonia, wants to join the euro area and integrate its currency into the euro in 2011. So far, the indicators and the degree of compliance with the criteria of the Maastricht Treaty, now the Treaty of Lisbon, indicate that this target is possible. We will not be able to guarantee this until the corresponding convergence report is published in the spring, but it is possible that Estonia will be in the euro area in 2011.
For the countries outside the European Union that are part of the region, candidate countries or potential candidate countries, joining the European Union is also a powerful anchor for ensuring that they have adequate strategies and policies.
It is therefore true that there are a great many difficulties. It is true that these countries have more fragile economies. It is true that the consequences of a crisis such as the one that we are going through are, for the citizens of those countries, infinitely more painful than the consequences for citizens of countries with social protection systems and with much more established, stronger and more consolidated welfare systems.
It must be said, however, that the instruments available to the European institutions and the very fact that they belong to the European Union and have the opportunity to be part of Economic and Monetary Union is a positive factor rather than an obstacle in terms of tackling a crisis such as the one that we are experiencing.
Having said this, it is also obvious that not all the economies of Central and Eastern European countries have been equally affected. Some economies were better prepared to withstand the blows of the crisis. Some economies had had the wisdom before the crisis to move forward political reforms that have given their model for growth a more solid foundation.
In any case, the European Union, and the Commission as part of the European institutions as a whole, reacted to the crisis, in particular, with a series of measures that responded to a specific concern which, in relative terms, were more beneficial to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
The European Economic Recovery Plan, which was adopted at the end of 2008, is a plan based on fiscal stimuli which have logically been more powerful in the large economies of the euro area in Western Europe. Nevertheless, by encouraging internal supply in Western European countries, these stimuli have enabled the market to continue to be a source of growth through external demand for Central and Eastern European countries.
In addition to the European Economic Recovery Plan, decisions adopted by the European institutions have increased lending by the European Investment Bank. The figures for 2009 have obviously not been closed, but I can forecast that lending by the European Investment Bank at the end of this year will probably be over 50% more than its lending in 2007, the year before the crisis.
The European Investment Bank has given specific priority to its financing operations in Central and Eastern European countries in a series of lines and activities. In order to do so, it has used instruments that the Bank had started before the crisis, like Jeremie, Jessica and Jaspers and other actions. Also, as it is not strictly a European Union institution, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has stepped up its action under the impetus of the European countries and the European Commission, who are shareholders in the bank.
The Structural Funds have also played a positive role, which they always do for countries that need to benefit from the cohesion policy, but when the crisis began, decisions were made, for example, to increase the resources that could be advanced from the Structural Funds for countries that benefit from them, in particular for Central and European countries.
Unfortunately, the Council did not support a Commission initiative for the European Social Fund to provide 100% of the funding during the crisis (2009 and 2010) for a series of activities to support workers and active policies in the labour market.
As you already know, the balance of payments facility was an instrument that had not been used since 1993. This instrument is used to provide finance for countries with difficulties securing external finance, due to their balance of payments, or for countries with difficulties financing their budgetary needs. Its ceiling has increased from EUR 12 billion to EUR 50 billion, which was at the initiative of the Commission and agreed by the Council, and out of those EUR 50 billion, around EUR 15 billion has been used in financial support operations for three Central and Eastern European countries that are Members of the European Union: Hungary, Latvia and Romania."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples