Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-06-22-Speech-3-197-000"

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"en.20110622.16.3-197-000"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, our fellow citizens are questioning the merits of austerity policies that are reducing their public services and squeezing their social security. Wherever these policies are rife, they are not succeeding in reducing public debt and bringing down unemployment. The contents of this ‘governance’ package – and I call them ‘contents’ deliberately – that we are discussing today are so ridiculous that even the economists are stunned, because they will prevent budgetary policy from adjusting to economic cycles. During the trialogue, the Commission representatives admitted to us themselves that they have not used any theoretical or econometric model as a basis for making sound predictions and recommendations. They admit that they are working on a purely intuitive basis. In the light of this, it is difficult to understand why the conservative, liberal and eurosceptic Members of this House have blindly attempted to toughen up the text proposed by the Commission. They are even less in a position to preach to us, considering that the governments led by friends of theirs have created these deficits through tax reductions that are as unfair as they are ineffective: is that not right, Mr Gauzès? They make grand statements about the Europe 2020 strategy, but they refuse to allow spending to prepare for the future, such as spending on investment, to be excluded from the calculation of the deficits. Yes, Mrs Wortmann-Kool, that is the crux of the debate as far as we are concerned! Let us reduce the deficits, yes, for example by going back on the tax gifts that have benefited the State’s creditors above all, but let us do it without sacrificing investment, training and jobs, because today’s investments are tomorrow’s jobs and the tax income that will follow, and this will allow us to reduce our deficits. This is the theorem that should appear on the frontispiece of the ‘governance’ package. My fellow conservative and liberal Members, some of you want to punish automatically States that are heretics to your dogma to the tune of billions of euros. They also want to punish countries that will not lower wages in order to regain their external balance. They believe that the deficits are primarily the product of bad intentions on the part of those States, as though the neoliberal model that you never question had not just been through its worst crisis since 1929, and as if it were not already leading to pressure on the buying power of ordinary people and causing a massive contraction in tax income: two problems that were at the root of the rise in private and public indebtedness in the first place. When it comes to the votes, socialists and democrats will send out a clear signal against this austerity package, which can only heighten the indignation that is rising throughout Europe. This clear signal is aimed at all workers in Europe and especially at our fellow citizens in France and Germany as they approach elections that will have a decisive impact on Europe’s future."@en1
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