Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-28-Speech-3-013-000"
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"en.20110928.3.3-013-000"2
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"Mr Barroso, it is heart-warming to hear such a speech. Like you, I may give an analysis, but after this speech, we will act together.
This is essential. That is why this Parliament placed its trust in you at the beginning of the mandate and continues to do so.
Mr Barroso, I ask you to go even further in your ambitions, because there is urgency. There is urgency to save the euro, to demonstrate our solidarity towards Greece and towards all the member countries that are seeing their markets attacked and their rating downgraded. At the same time, it is urgent that these same countries adopt and implement measures that are a match for the events, for European solidarity comes at that price. We must act urgently, not in the months, but in the days and weeks to come, to prove to the world that Europeans are able to defend and stabilise their currency. If they do not do it, the whole European project will suffer in the long term.
The decision that – I hope – this Parliament will take today on economic governance, the famous ‘six pack’, is an important step in the right direction. We now have to apply it as soon as possible, and the same goes for the decisions of 21 July on the stability funds.
Mr Barroso, entrepreneurs need visibility and security. The markets expect the euro area and the countries of the Union as a whole to take strong and consistent measures for reducing expenditure but also for supporting growth.
On the first aspect – that of streamlining public expenditure – a few days ago I called for a ‘big bang’, a common decision of the 17 on fiscal, budgetary and social convergence. I reiterate this call today. It is very difficult for one country in isolation to take the strong measures that the euro area’s financial situation requires. However, we must recognise that the election campaigns that are coming up in several European countries in the next few years will undoubtedly not be conducive to courageous measures.
Therefore, I ask the Commission to seize the proposal to bring into line tax rates, particularly for businesses, but also retirement age and weekly working time. Europeans will only stand shoulder to shoulder with each other if they see the same rules applied. That is when we can feel European.
I am convinced that strong and swift decisions by the 17 on this triple convergence would have considerable impact and would be a tangible sign of leadership on Europe’s part.
Ladies and gentlemen, I said this earlier on: the current crisis is as much a crisis of confidence, which calls for collective decisions like those I have just described, as it is a growth crisis. And without growth, Europe will be unable to reimburse even the interest on its debt. Without growth, Europe will not be able to develop or survive competition from emerging countries.
Europe is going through a confidence crisis and a growth crisis. As if that was not enough, it is going through a leadership crisis.
This growth requires increased competitiveness, more resources allocated to education and training, as well as increased efforts in research, development and innovation. I call for a new public-private partnership with a view to creating centres of excellence in research and innovation and to creating – why not? – an Erasmus programme for first jobs, following the success of the Erasmus university scheme.
I would like to see the European political policy-makers listening more to entrepreneurs and to social partners, since they are the ones who live with the reality of globalisation and who can help us emerge from the crisis. Ladies and gentlement, achieving growth also requires that we pay special attention to small and medium-sized enterprises. We must not ride roughshod over them. They are the ones who bring us jobs and who help us to overcome the crisis. Yet they are asked to bear administrative, fiscal and social costs that are too high. If we want them to be able to expand and hire people, this growth will require greater flexibility for investing as well as for keeping and creating jobs.
Ladies and gentlemen, the single market was the great idea of the 1980s. With the single market, Europe has won growth points and our manufacturers have been able to achieve economies of scale by gaining access to a continental market instead of a national one. Nonetheless, we all know that the European single market is far from being completed, especially in the services sector.
I am asking the European Commission to get down to the task with as much ambition and determination as it showed 20 years ago. That is where growth is. Ladies and gentlemen, growth cannot be decreed. It is achieved by a whole series of structural measures, the ones precisely that we have already adopted in the Europe 2020 strategy. We now need to roll up our sleeves and above all apply these measures.
It is time for Europe to speak strongly and intelligibly, not only to counter populism, which is the enemy of the European people, but to propose long-term solutions that our citizens understand and expect. It is time that our elected national representatives accept that voluntarily shared sovereignty is the only future for our countries, and I mean the only one.
I am asking you, Mr Barroso, to propose to the European Parliament and to the Council a plan to get us out of the crisis. A plan that can be, for the 500 million Europeans, the chance for a fresh start, the chance to overhaul their project.
We need bold actions and proposals, understood – I repeat – by our fellow citizens. Europe has always made progress in crises, but we still have to make the right proposals and believe in them. I always say that, before the crisis and after the crisis, nothing will ever be as it was before. Things will be different. Mr Barroso, we must propose this change to our fellow citizens so that once again they believe in politics and in Europe.
It is high time that Europe came up with a political answer to the crisis. A united and strong answer, which puts politics in its rightful place, that is to say in the driving seat; I am talking to the Council.
Because, after all, what are we talking about? We are talking about a currency – the euro – created 10 years ago. We truly believe that we are giving ourselves the means to secure its governance. We talk about countries which, for decades, have lived above their means, always more, without wondering whether or not the money spent actually created growth and jobs. We talk about a Europe born to prevent internal conflicts and to ensure its peoples’ prosperity, a Europe that, until now, has succeeded on all these fronts. But we also talk about a Europe that is misunderstood, even criticised, because its leaders have not been able to explain why the choice of Europe is the only choice for the future and why the answer to global challenges can only be a European one.
All too often, one forgets that the European Union is one of the most advanced and developed regions. It is the world’s leading power in terms of trade. Our duty is above all to make sure that it remains in that position. What is the problem, then? And how can it be solved? The problem is that, even though economists agree on the reasons behind the financial and economic crisis, and on how to respond to it – namely a mix of rigour and incentives for creating wealth and employment – the political class has not had the courage to set about the task.
The reforms proposed these last few months by the Member States of the Union and of the euro area, in particular, are along the right lines. However, they are clearly insufficient, late and poorly explained, or not explained at all. They stem from the intergovernmental method which – it is plain to see – paralyses Europe, as you rightly said.
The national approach, ladies and gentlemen, must give way to the European approach. We do not want to discuss subsidiarity here, but the Community approach is the only one that will enable us to meet in a united and effective way the urgent and huge challenges that are before us. I can understand that, in times of crisis, one feels the need to turn in on oneself. No, we must reach out and seek the Community approach. The European method is not two, three or four Presidents bringing different messages, but a single and swift exit strategy.
Mr Barroso, you are the head of the executive for economic governance. You demonstrated it this morning in your speech. That is why the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) urges you to fully play your double role of proposing and implementing European legislation decided with the Council and Parliament.
The Commission has a crucial role to play: that of guarantor of the European general interest. This is difficult and demanding, but necessary: we must resist national interests which are not always compatible with the common interest."@en1
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