Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-23-Speech-3-071-000"
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"en.20110323.17.3-071-000"2
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".
Mr President, firstly I would like to give the President of the Commission good wishes on his birthday today. You deserve to be congratulated on that.
I cannot share your cheerfulness ahead of this summit. I believe it is a summit that is taking place in the worst phase of the European Union, when it is in its worst state. It starts with Libya. Seldom has a campaign been prepared so hastily and in such an unstructured way as this campaign, which is actually a good thing and is intended to help people but which is now ending up a diplomatic and – possibly, although I hope not – a military disaster: hasty, uncoordinated, disorganised. Europe is running away from it in every direction and Turkey, our accession candidate, blocks everything. Many congratulations!
At this juncture we need to take stock. This crisis has been ongoing for a year, and for the past year the same process has been taking place over and over again. At first what is required is contested, only to be acknowledged four or five months later. A year ago people said ‘The Greeks should deal with it themselves. We do not need to help them’. Four months later: a bail-out. ‘We do not need a rescue package. The amount we have made available is enough.’ Four months later: ‘We need more money’. ‘We do not want Eurobonds. Eurobonds are nonsense.’ Now everyone is discussing Eurobonds. Eurobonds will come – of that I am quite sure. Perhaps in four months’ time. ‘We do not need economic governance. Europe does not need economic governance.’ The same people who were adamantly maintaining this are celebrating at a European Council meeting the fact that now at last we have economic governance. They are not even embarrassed about saying and doing the opposite of what they previously announced.
I also do not know whether we have yet rescued the Community method. I hope so and we support you in it, Mr Barroso. Not just as a birthday present, but because Europe must defend the Community method, because we can see that if we change to this other method which Chancellor Merkel calls the ‘new European method’ we will have exactly what I have just described. Everyone does something and the next day does the opposite of what was announced the day before yesterday. That is the reality. We are not dealing with a crisis of the euro; we are dealing with a crisis of the governments in the euro zone countries. There is a crucial difference.
With respect to Portugal, everyone is talking and hoping that the government will be able to implement what are actually improbably harsh measures. Moreover, it is a government – like the situation in Greece – that is acting in part against the will of its own electorate, and then we have some tactical play from the opposition party which is putting the screws on the government.
In Germany, the finance minister – a pro-European – comes up with a package that we all need just a few days before this summit, and then the foreign minister and the Chancellor say: ‘Well, we will have to talk it over again first’. Last Friday I had opportunity to talk to many leading people from the European financial world on the issue of ‘Does the euro enjoy confidence?’. The answer from those in Frankfurt that I spoke to – including the President of the European Central Bank and the President of the Euro Group, but also many other leading bankers – was: ‘Yes, the euro is a stable currency. The euro enjoys confidence, and likewise we have confidence in the euro. However, we have no confidence in the governments of the countries that have this euro. How can you have confidence in a government that cannot keep its word for even three days?’ That is the problem that we are grappling with in Europe. We have embarked upon the wrong course. The euro is a strong currency. It is also the expression of the economic might of the euro area in competition with other continents. On its introduction the euro was worth USD 1.17. Look at what it is worth today. The euro is a stable currency in the intercontinental competition between economic zones, but it is being destabilised from inside because there is no stable form of government. That is why the Community method is not just a subject of debate in the European Parliament, but also provides the basis for stabilisation of the currency and the expression of the huge economic might of the euro area. This economic might cannot develop, however, because it is being administered by people to whom the latest opinion poll for the next regional election is more important than the future of the European currency. That is the reality with which we are confronted.
I hope that everything will go well at the weekend. I hope that what you have announced will be implemented. I hope that we will come back from a successful summit. However, I have my doubts and I fear that we will continue to experience what has been going on for the past year. I am sorry, but I have to say that the leadership of the European Union is blundering its way along."@en1
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