Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-09-Speech-2-200"
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"en.20100209.13.2-200"2
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"I think that, in contrast to the representatives of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats), I am not really an advocate of the intervention by the Commission.
First and foremost, I think we must recognise that what we are witnessing with Greece is also the consequence of the failure of the Lisbon Strategy. The countries have actually grown apart from each other in the last ten years. The difference between Germany and Greece has not lessened over the past decade, but increased, and this is a consequence of the fact that we have pursued a Lisbon Strategy that was much too weak.
Secondly, I also think that a tactical, strategic error has been made by the European institutions – the European Commission and the European Central Bank – by not taking immediate action. Action was taken far too late. For six weeks, all sorts of declarations were made by European leaders, who stated that the Greek leaders had to take measures, that the measures were not strong enough, or even that they had no confidence in the ability of the Greek leaders, and so forth. We have heard it all. I say to you that we, ourselves, are partly responsible for the reaction of the financial markets with respect to Greece. How can you now expect the financial markets to have confidence in a club if the members of the club themselves no longer have confidence in Greece and in the measures being proposed by Greece? I therefore think that the approach has been wrong. If the European Central Bank and the European Commission had created a package for Greece much more quickly from the outset, we would not have had any infection of the euro area of the type we are currently witnessing.
Neither should it be said that nobody was aware of Greece’s problems. People have been talking about the Greek issue in the lobbies of the European Commission for three or four months and have been saying that there would be a problem with Greece at some point. That is indeed the only reason, ladies and gentlemen, that explains why there is a rate on Greece, with its 12.7% deficit, while there is no rate on the United Kingdom, with its 12.9% deficit. Therefore, this no longer really concerns the bare figures; it concerns the financial markets which, due to the fact that we, ourselves, are not exuding sufficient cohesion, confidence and solidarity, are pouncing on Greece. This situation could have been avoided by a very strong intervention by the European Commission and the European Central Bank.
A strategy or a recommendation, Commissioner: let us solve this ourselves! I am absolutely against the fact that we are bringing in the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, to solve problems in the euro area. We will solve the problems in the euro area ourselves, so we do not need the IMF.
Finally, my last point, which is about more than Greece. The present situation is a test case for the cohesion and internal unity of the euro."@en1
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