Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-23-Speech-3-125-000"
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"en.20110323.17.3-125-000"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, honourable Members, first, I thank you for this debate. I am grateful that most of you in the Chamber and the speakers in the debate recognised the need for the six elements which will be the European Union’s joint response to the economic crisis and on which the Heads of State or Government, I hope, can decide on Thursday and Friday. With this we can bring the crisis to an end; with this we can lay the foundation for severely restricting the occurrence of similar crises. I agree very strongly with the speakers who said that it was not the European Union itself that was in crisis but that a part, a good part, of the Member States had become entangled in a debt crisis, a debt spiral. This is what we must put an end to. This is the top priority task for all of us, for every Member State.
Then we already agreed that financial support had to be increased by incorporating suitable conditions, that trade relations had to be deepened, and that we needed to facilitate social changes in the region. The area where we need to progress is the three Ms, Market access, Mobility and Money. Then, on 21 March, the Foreign Ministers, the trustees of the areas of the common foreign and security policy, and common security and defence policy, reiterated their commitment. By then, UN Security Council Resolution 1973 was available. We welcomed this and we could also welcome the decisions of the Paris Summit, the implementation of which must be started. We were very quick to decide on sanctions and we emphasised our commitment to helping civilians.
The common foreign and security policy may not work perfectly but I believe that some very important decisions have been made, albeit at the last minute. Thank you very much, Madam President.
However, we live in a single Union, and we have a common monetary policy and a common currency. This is why the debt crisis of any individual Member State is a joint problem for us all. This is why we need joint solutions. An interesting debate has started, which, I believe, we will have to deal with when we start negotiations now in an official form as well on the six legislative proposals on economic governance. This is distinguishing between good and bad debt. Is there such a thing as good debt? This is a very exciting debate. The Commissioner supports what I am saying, as we considered this in the European Council and the Council was very sceptical whether there was such a thing as good debt. Here, too, one MEP said that in very many cases a debt that started as a good debt could turn into a very bad debt.
We should continue this debate, but I believe that if we wish to extract ourselves from the debt crisis once and for all, we must seek different ways of stimulating the economy and starting growth, other than increasing debt. We should not wish to make good investments at the expense of future generations. Therefore, I think it is also important to say that, as President Barroso also mentioned, we have tools in our hands: further developing the single market, removing still existing obstacles, and the Europe 2020 Strategy.
I would like to say a few words on the Portuguese and Irish situations. We are all aware that this will be discussed at the European Council meeting. As regards Portugal, I merely wish to point out that Portugal’s announced package of measures was welcomed by the Heads of State and Government at the EU Summit on 11 March, and it was also welcomed by the President of the European Central Bank. Thus this in itself was a positive message for the markets. At the same time, it is also very important to say that every action plan is only worth as much as is implemented of it. Furthermore, it is very important that there should be political commitment and unambiguous support behind every undertaking.
Regarding Ireland, I would simply like to mention that the representative of the new Irish Government was very cooperative in the General Affairs Council on Monday, and that I am very confident that a solution to the Irish problem will be found at the European Council meeting as well. Many people have raised the Community method versus the intergovernmental method, suggesting that intergovernmentalism was the reason for the failure of the Lisbon Strategy as well. I believe that we have made considerable progress since 4 February. On 4 February, a good number of Member States and many Members of the European Parliament with whom I spoke at the time were worried about where we were heading and what would become of the European Union if we outsourced important matters. In my opinion, the situation has improved a lot and we have returned to the Community approach. From the very start the task for us, as the Presidency, has been to try to promote the creation of a viable solution between the outsourcers and those who wished to remain solely within the Community framework.
The Hungarian Prime Minister suggested and requested as early as 4 February that a reference be made in the conclusions of the European Council with regard to also implementing what was then called the Competitiveness Pact in accordance with the Treaties. I am very pleased to be able to say that we have certainly returned to the Community approach. The European Commission, one of our most Community-oriented bodies, has an important duty in every element of our comprehensive economic answer of the six laws, and therefore the European Parliament has also been given guarantees that it will have access to the information. So, we have come a long way and in a positive direction. The Pact for the eis also open and Member States, such as my own country, will be able to join if they want to. It is not an exclusive club.
Finally, as a last request, I repeat my wish that we pursue the debate on the package of six legislative proposals on economic governance in the most constructive spirit possible. We are prepared for this, and I would like to mention that we strove to take into account the reports of the MEPs which were already complete in January when the Council formulated its position.
Turning to Libya and the Mediterranean, war and instability are the greatest tragedy possible for the people living in the region and the European Union. I believe I am quoting Mr Mauro’s words, which I thoroughly agree with. We have ahead of us the opportunity and task of creating out of this crisis the chance to ensure that a tragedy of this nature never again occurs in the Mediterranean region. I think that it is fair to say, and I believe in plain speaking, that Parliament was quicker in deciding this than the Council. In the end, the Coalition was able to put together an operation at the last minute which managed to save the lives of very many people in Benghazi.
As to the question of how united we are and how effective the European Union’s common foreign and security policy is, here again I will speak plainly. We are not one hundred per cent united. However, we have been able to agree a great many things which were essential in the recent period. On 11 March, at the summit held then, the Heads of State or Government clearly stated that Gaddafi must go; that relations must be established with the Transitional National Council in Benghazi, and that the Libyan authorities must be called on to allow humanitarian aid into the country. Already at that time we decided that we must examine our relations with the southern neighbourhood. A condition for this was the start of democratic changes."@en1
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