Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-09-Speech-2-201"
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"en.20100209.13.2-201"2
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"Madam President, on behalf of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, I would like to tell the Spanish Presidency that we fully support its analysis of the political will to progress towards new tools of governance and towards an economic union, and not just a monetary union, as Mr Bullmann also pointed out. You will have our political group’s full support in this undertaking.
In actual fact, leaving aside the Greek case, which is at stake, I believe that we need to review all the tools of economic governance of the euro area and, in particular, the Stability and Growth Pact. More than half of the Member States in the euro area no longer adhere to the Stability and Growth Pact.
Moreover, let us not forget that, until fairly recently – until the crisis – Spain was fully compliant with the Stability and Growth Pact criteria, but that did not stop it, two years later, from finding itself in a radically different situation, with a 20% unemployment rate, or from completely disregarding those criteria.
What does this mean? It means that, with a Stability and Growth Pact that is narrowly focused on public finance criteria, which are absolutely necessary but insufficient, until recently, Spain controlled its public debt and its public deficit but, at the same time, allowed its private debt to soar. There has been an explosion in private debt, a speculative bubble on the property market, and a recession on a much greater scale than elsewhere, with the result that a massive injection of public money is required. This is indeed proof that, by having a blinkered view of the Stability and Growth Pact and a view of euro area governance that is focused solely on public debt, one fails to see the bigger picture, which would make it possible to anticipate the next crisis and to prevent it.
I should therefore like to know what proposals both the Spanish Presidency and the Commission have put on the table in order, of course, to reaffirm the Stability and Growth Pact and, above all, to integrate it into a more comprehensive system.
Secondly, you say – and you are right – that public finances need to be controlled better, that a return to more stable debt levels is necessary. In your view, does that depend solely on a decrease in public spending, or does it also depend on the ability to increase certain taxes? If so, which ones? Also, what role can fiscal cooperation between ourselves play in enabling the Member States to regain some room for manoeuvre that will allow them to make up their deficits, not only by reducing expenditure, but also by regaining some room for manoeuvre so as to increase their revenues?"@en1
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