Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-25-Speech-4-017"
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"en.20100325.3.4-017"2
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"Mr President, first of all, I would like to congratulate the rapporteurs Mr Scicluna – who knows a great deal about central banks – and Mr Giegold. We held long discussions with them and in the end, agreed on many compromise amendments.
I would like to talk to you today about the euro. I would like to point out to you all that I am new to politics: until nine months ago, I was giving classes on macro-economics at the University of Barcelona. In the autumn of 2008, my family and I were living in London for academic reasons and I was a direct witness of the pound sterling’s sudden drop of 30% over the course of a few weeks. All of a sudden, all my English colleagues had become poorer, and the pound has still not recovered today. In light of how much the pound has dropped, I do not even want to imagine what the value of the peseta would be today if we still had that in our wallets.
These two years of terrible global economic crisis have shown that the euro has firmly anchored us to stability. It is, in fact, the only major Western currency that has not made its users poorer.
The euro has been a secure port against the huge waves of the global financial storms, to borrow the evocative image of the British financier David Marsh. A convinced Eurosceptic for many years, 12 months ago, this respected public financier published a book praising the euro, acknowledging it as a success and as the future global currency.
The euro is not in crisis today: it is the fiscal crises of certain Member States that are causing the single currency difficulties. The euro is a shining example of monetary union that is being studied and admired by the economic elites of China, India, Brazil and Russia. The euro poses no risk to the Mediterranean economies. The euro is the opportunity for their economies to be permanently integrated into the good, reforming and advanced practices of the countries of Central Europe.
The report that we are debating today includes severe criticism of the practice of state intervention in the Chinese currency. Its artificial devaluation has contributed to the creation of the huge global imbalances that are one of the causes of this crisis.
We in the euro area must not penalise the countries that export the most. The history of financial crises shows us that, once financial health has been achieved, economic recovery comes hand-in-hand with exports.
It is true that Germany needs to begin consuming again and do more as the motor for European economic growth. Nevertheless, under no circumstances must its export strength be weakened. I am a liberal Member from Catalonia, and my region – which is the source of 28% of Spain’s exports – also has a very high ratio of exports to gross domestic product: almost 30%. Those who do best cannot be penalised.
Finally, the euro now has a great deal of prestige worldwide, but it needs to make a little more effort to be transparent. Mr Trichet, the verbatim records of the debates of the European Central Bank should be published, as is the case in the United States, Japan and Sweden."@en1
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