Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-06-22-Speech-3-165-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20110622.16.3-165-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, in the view of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, the component of the economic governance package that deals with the Stability and Growth Pact is not the response that Europe requires at this time of structural crisis. The package does indeed revisit the Stability and Growth Pact, but not to change its essence. It revisits it to make its demands broader and its penalties tougher.
It would seem more useful to assume that the pact is impossible to comply with if a country’s economy is not growing and, in particular, if there is a crisis. These issues should be at the heart of the political agenda. We should discuss having a crisis management policy and its associated instruments in euro area countries and, on another matter, how to prevent the persistently divergent evolution of the euro economies from destroying the single currency. If these issues are not resolved, the pact becomes stupid, as someone said. There is, however, a glimmer of hope in the package: the new initiative to identify and correct the macroeconomic imbalances that build up, particularly in the eurozone, before they become insoluble problems.
Parliament wanted responsibilities as co-legislator and has carried them out to the full. The text on which we are going to vote reflects a broad consensus, which was only possible thanks to everyone’s huge capacity for work and spirit of compromise. As rapporteur, I wish to thank all my fellow Members from all political groups, particularly my shadow rapporteurs, and I pick out Mr Haglund especially, for whom I acted as shadow rapporteur as well.
The trialogue phase was long and hard, and the agreement we reached – sadly not a full one – was due to the Hungarian Presidency, represented by Minister Kármán, the Commission, represented by Commissioner Rehn, and all our partners. Let us speak plainly: identifying macroeconomic imbalances is a complex and completely novel process. Rather than merely applying sanctions, it is important to identify the risks competently, find out whether they are the country’s responsibility or whether they result from external impacts, and make correct, timely and practicable recommendations.
After the negotiating process, the scoreboard – that is, the set of indicators that have been negotiated – includes not only financial and nominal indicators, but also indicators from the real economy. We also trust that the Commission will scrupulously respect the compromise of recital 6-A, which involves Parliament alongside the Council in future review processes. Interpretation will also not be done automatically, but intelligently through in-depth reviews, which are demanding for the Commission but necessary.
The Commission’s recommendations will have to ensure consistency with all the other strategic documents, but the country will bear the main responsibility for proposing solutions to implement. Parliament’s enhanced powers, the greater involvement of the social partners and respect for collective bargaining practices have all been guaranteed. Penalties are justified in cases of lack of cooperation but not where countries are unable to meet the targets. They are also graded, which is an important aspect. We would have preferred to lighten the penalties, but we had to agree to them as part of the compromises.
Before agreement can be reached, there is one fundamental stumbling block: the recognition that in an internal market, in a monetary area, it makes sense that the variations in the scoreboard indicators should be observed whether they are positive or negative, and that both deficits and surpluses should be subject to observation, even though they obviously do not give rise to similar recommendations. All of us – individual Members, political groups and institutions – have come a long way. Agreement on a balanced, high-quality text is in sight. I just hope that the spirit of compromise that has brought us this far will carry us through to a final agreement."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples