Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-24-Speech-3-031"

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"Mr President, it is not without reason that we are talking in this Chamber, today, about Greece, despite the fact that, unfortunately, Greece is not on the agenda for the meeting. I would like, in this Chamber, to express approval for the Greek Government. It is a government which, today, is facing protests on its streets. It may be that the protests are coming from the government’s own socialist electorate, but it is a government which, in the name of a rational economy and European solidarity, is taking tough decisions, and is not bowing to populism. I regret to have to say that not all European leaders, today, are able to resist bowing to this kind of populism. It seems to me that Greece does need our solidarity, because Europe is built on the principle of solidarity, but, of course, we must not allow any politician in any country to treat economic policy like going shopping with a credit card with no limit, because things will end up as they have done in Greece. In future, we should very firmly set conditions for Member States, to ensure they follow a rational economic policy, because a policy which is not based on rational foundations ends up as it has done. Unfortunately, I have to say that, today, we are also facing a problem which is seen so often in Europe, namely that ideology and politics are more important than the economy. This, unfortunately, is how it ends, and we had an example of this with the introduction of the euro. We can say, today, that Greece probably adopted the euro too early, but because politics was put before the economy, we have the crisis which we have today. I would like to say that I hope the European Commission, under Mr Barroso’s leadership, will be the guardian of European solidarity and European economic sense, because we need that sense and solidarity. I would also like to point out that, in response to the crisis in which we find ourselves, we should not look for medicines which will only make the situation worse. I do not think that greater bureaucracy, integration and regulation in Europe could help what is, and should be, our greatest objective – increasing competitiveness. We should not count on officials being able to decide about how to make our continent better, instead of allowing a free economy to do this. We should also respect the differences in economic and social policy which divide European countries and which result from their different history, culture and other factors. We can, and we should, appeal for European solidarity for Greece, and I hope that I will hear, in this Chamber, expressions of approval for the Greek Government."@en1
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