Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-06-22-Speech-3-033-000"
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"en.20110622.14.3-033-000"2
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".
Mr President, first of all the key question of this debate today is what we can expect from this European Council on Thursday and on Friday. What I hope, and what my group is hoping – as, I think, are the majority in this Parliament – is that we can end this Summit with a more decisive, more comprehensive and bolder approach to the current crisis. Let us be honest, we do not have a global comprehensive approach to this current crisis. It is not on the table today either in the Council or in Parliament.
That is what we need. I am well aware that it is an onerous task that we are setting you, Mr Daul, but I know that you are capable of rising to this challenge. It is true that a country in such a situation yearns for political unity, and it is not by playing petty political games, as is currently the case in Greece, that this situation will be resolved. I experienced this in Belgium for nine years, Mr Lange.
Mr President, let us be very honest. We need a bolder economic governance package than we have on the table today.
I want to ask President Barroso something directly: yesterday, the spokesman for the European Commission said at the press conference that there was no need for more reverse QMV in the governance package. I would ask you, Mr Barroso, to rectify this. I would ask that the Commission, together with the European Parliament, employ a more Communitarian method for the economic governance package.
I would say to Martin Schulz that I also have some questions about rating agencies and the role they are playing in the current crisis, but let us try to find errors and the sources of the crisis within our own ranks, and maybe not outside the European Union and outside its institutions.
Let us be honest about another thing: the crisis is not over. Those who think that by giving some additional money to Greece this crisis will come to an end – as regards Greece and the euro – are wrong. This crisis is not over, and this crisis will continue if, first of all, we do not find a structural solution for Greece and, secondly, if we do not create a real, economic and political union in Europe. Such measures should end the crisis as regards the euro and Greece.
Again, is it possible to have one currency and 17 governments, 17 economic strategies and 17 bond markets – as we have today and is a situation which does not exist elsewhere in the world? It is only us in Europe who think that we can have one monetary union and 17 different policies, 17 different governments and 17 different bond markets.
It is not only us – the federalists in the European Parliament – who are saying that. Yesterday, Mr Lipsky, the current Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said that Europe should create one political and economic union to face this crisis. Yesterday it was Mr Geithner, the US Minister of Finance, who was saying ‘maybe they can stop and talk with each other; let them create an economic and political union’. If they know on the other side of the Atlantic what we have to do, why do we not have the courage to take this enormous step forward to an economic and political union? That is the key question for the tomorrow’s Council.
As regards my second point, we need to help Greece – and not only in a defensive way. We need a bold austerity programme, and that is currently what is being discussed with the Greek Government. Maybe there are plans to go further than what is on the table now. If so, we need a positive plan for it.
They cannot emerge from the crisis based only on austerity. They need to have growth and investment and we can deliver on that within the European Union. Let us, for example, give guarantees for private investment. Private investment no longer exists in Greece. Let us give them loans from the European Investment Bank. Why not use part of the privatisation programme not for fiscal consolidation but to create new investment and growth in Greece.
I now have a request for Mr Daul, and will therefore continue in French.
I am going to make my comment in French. Mr Daul’s group comprises members of the
party. We need to be very clear on that. Moreover, if we want all the other countries to give money to Greece, we also need a political consensus to be reached in Greece. I believe that we can call on Mr Daul, who was right in what he said, to convince his political friends to reach this political consensus in order to deliver this policy for Greece."@en1
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