Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-14-Speech-3-012-000"
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"en.20110914.3.3-012-000"2
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"Mr President, I think everybody here agrees that this is a very deep crisis, but we should not make the mistake at the beginning of this debate of saying that this is a Greek debt crisis. The Greek debt crisis is maybe the trigger, but what is really at stake is a deep crisis in the eurozone. First of all, we need to make an analysis of why we are in this crisis today, what went wrong. I think the reason is simple: first of all, we made a strategic mistake at the beginning when we launched the euro. We launched a monetary union, but we did not launch an economic and fiscal union, and we know that it is impossible to have one single currency with 17 different governments, 17 different bond markets, 17 different economic strategies. That does not exist anywhere in the world. Why should it exist then in Europe alone?
I think we also made a mistake of method. What we have used over the last 10 years in Europe is a bad method, a weak method, an intergovernmental method, and markets simply do not believe that Member States can produce enough discipline and enough solidarity to keep together a single currency. That is what we in fact need. That is what markets are asking for. For the first time, we have markets which are not asking for more deregulation; no, they are they asking for more unity in Europe, for a transfer of power to the European level. That is the request of the financial markets of today.
To complete the analysis, I think that we have also had a bad attitude over the last 18 months, since the start of the crisis. We have seen political leadership in Europe in the Member States with a stop-and-go policy, a cacophony, half-measures and a lack of global approach. That global approach is what we need now, and what we need to hear from the European Commission. What is the global approach that can stop the crisis and then recreate confidence in the markets? What do we need? I think we need four building blocks, and it is for the Commission to come forward with these four building blocks.
The first is a real economic governance and economic government. Excuse me, but the proposals of Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy a few weeks ago are not doing the job. A government of Heads of State and Government seeing each other twice a year is not a government. In my opinion, governments should see each other twice a week and not twice a year, as in the Merkel/Sarkozy proposal.
The second building block is also very clear. We need a eurobond market, because the ECB cannot forever continue to buy bonds off countries in difficulties. That is not possible, so we need a eurobond market. What is the situation today in Europe? The real situation in Europe is that the bond market in Europe is completely blocked. There are today no banks, insurance companies, pension funds or institutional investors who are still willing to buy bonds from a number of European countries and we are now dependent on savings from Latin America and China to have enough liquidity in Europe for the bonds of a number of European countries. That is the situation. So you have the choice. And in Germany you have the choice – and the FDP has the choice, I shall be very blunt about this – either you continue with the situation where we are dependent on savings from outside Europe or we create a European bond market now. And it is urgent to do it now and not to wait until the end of the year, as some are proposing.
My third proposal, the third building block, is a growth and job act in Europe. We need growth. Let us do what the US Government has done and announce a growth and job pact in Europe.
Finally, Mr President of the Council, we need the stability pact, the 'six-pack'. Let us be honest: yesterday we received a new proposal from your side and we are going backwards instead of forwards. I thought we had an agreement for real automaticity also in the preventive arm of the Stability Pact: that it is no longer the Member States who have the lead, but it is the Commission who has the lead. In the new proposal, last proposal I have seen, it is again the opposite. I say there is no deal if the Member States do not understand that it is the Commission which has to be in the lead of the Stability Pact and no longer the Member States, as this no longer works in Europe.
My final message is clear: we want the Commission to put a global proposal and a global approach on the table of Parliament and the Council. I can tell you, Mr Barroso: do that! It is the only way to put confidence back in the markets. That will be a huge global initiative by the Commission, backed by the European Parliament, and if you do that you can count on this European Parliament."@en1
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