Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-08-Speech-2-485-000"
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"en.20110308.25.2-485-000"2
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"Madam President, I enjoyed Mr Barroso’s view of the world today, but it was perhaps rather more ironic than he had intended.
He talked about the events in Egypt and elsewhere, saying that it is wonderful that people are rising up seeking democracy. I would remind him that democracy is a method whereby you vote for people who govern you and then, if you do not like what they do, you can get rid of them, turf them out and put somebody else in. It was ironic because his next sentence was ‘and that is why in Europe, facing the euro crisis, we must reinforce the Community method’.
For the public watching in on this – which increasingly they do – the Community method means that laws are proposed in secret by unelected bureaucrats – people like you, Mr Barroso. I know the European Parliament voted for you, but you were the only candidate that was offered to us. That is not democracy!
So Mr Barroso is saying, on the one hand, that democracy is good, but on the other hand, that we cannot have it in Europe. That was reinforced by Mr Verhofstadt, who comes from Belgium and who thinks all nation states should be abolished – well, perhaps his own will be very shortly. He is saying that we want an economic union. Nobody has voted for that. Nobody has been asked whether they want it. He may vote for it but the peoples of Europe have not voted for it.
What should be discussed at the summit on Friday is Portugal. After the bailouts in Greece and Ireland, it is pretty obvious that the markets are sending a message – ‘Come in number 3, your time is up’. Portuguese bond yields hit 7.6% on Monday. Mr Barroso knows that himself. It was when yields reached 7% that Ireland had to be bailed out. In April, we also have a massive rollover of Portuguese debt – another EUR 20 billion that has to rolled over. Let us remind ourselves that, in the last six months, 80% of Portugal’s debt has been purchased by the European Central Bank.
We cannot go on as a European Union buying our own debt. If we do, the next debt crisis will not be in a country, but will be a debt crisis of the European Central Bank itself."@en1
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