Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-10-25-Speech-2-474-000"
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"en.20111025.28.2-474-000"2
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"Mr President, I shall begin with the point raised by Mr Schulz. I can tell you that on Thursday, I will make a proposal at the Conference of Presidents to summon Mr Van Rompuy, Mr Barroso and Mr Juncker to talk about economic governance in the euro area.
They were appointed by the Council to make proposals for the December summit. I believe it is in all our interests to organise a debate with them, in Strasbourg, in November, on the content of their project. It should not be like last time, when we were convened at the end only to be confronted with a proposal that had already been decided on by the European Council without Parliament having been able to exercise any influence whatsoever.
I am telling you this now and I hope, I think, that we will, in any case, have the support of almost all the groups for this debate, in November, at the European Parliament. As for Wednesday’s summit, I get the feeling that after 20 months of hesitations, contradictions and half measures, the Heads of State or Government have realised that radical measures need to be taken. We need a global plan to truly restore stability in the euro area, as well as a kind of road map to achieve this.
As for the content of this plan, Mr President, I believe that it is very simple. Eight days ago, in this House, we approved a resolution by an overwhelming majority. This covers the principal seven steps that need to be taken in this plan to restore stability in the euro area. No new approach is needed. No discussions are needed. We have decided on a clear and unambiguous resolution on the seven major reforms to be carried out in the euro area.
I assume, Mr President, that you will go to Brussels on Wednesday to deliver your traditional introduction to the European summit, and I call on you to reiterate these seven points that the European Parliament is calling for to stabilise the euro area, in other words, to find a lasting solution for Greece. We need a European plan to recapitalise the banks, because it cannot be done with national measures. We must boost the bailout fund.
Let us be honest with each other: among the other items in our resolution, there is one that will be crucial in the days and weeks ahead. We can talk about anything and everything – economic governance, economic government, the fiscal and economic union that we need, recapitalising the banks – they are all very important and therefore need to be repeated on Wednesday to the Heads of State or Government. However, we all know what the bottom line is: we need to find a way of boosting the bailout fund. That is what Wednesday will be all about, nothing else. As for the rest, they are going to say: ‘We will make some progress ahead of the December summit’. The bottom line, however, is this: how are we going to boost the bailout fund?
Ms Wortmann-Kool spoke about a bazooka. Will the bazooka be there? When they talk about financial markets, they only mean light weapons. When we talk about financial markets, we are talking about heavy artillery. Well, let me tell you that the proposal that will be approved on Wednesday already exists. Talk of boosting the bailout fund is already being heard in the corridors, not of the European Parliament, but of the Reichstag! That is where word is being spread about the proposal to be approved on Wednesday. I have it here. It is entitled ‘Draft terms and conditions maximising the lending capacity of the EFSF’. There are three and a half pages outlining all the details for achieving this. We are not the ones in possession of this document. It is being discussed at national level, not at European level.
I have to say that it is a complicated system. You need to read this document at least three or four times before you understand it, and I have some doubts, Mr President, as to whether this system can work. In fact, it is a system whereby all debt securities issued by countries in difficulty will be underwritten by 20% – as already mentioned in the press. It does not matter whether those securities are issued by Spain, Italy or any other country; 20% will be underwritten. If the firepower of the bailout fund cannot be boosted, if the Member States do not reach an agreement on the European Central Bank’s involvement, and if a single bond market is not immediately introduced, what else can be done? We go back to national solutions. We are being told that the States must continue to issue bonds and that we Europeans will underwrite them by 20%.
Let me tell you that I have my doubts about the success of this system. 20%! We are going to grant Greece a 60% discount while, at the same time, hoping that a 20% guarantee will calm the markets. Once again, I hope that it will work, but I have my doubts, as I think that the only real solution for saving the euro that will work and which should be implemented as soon as possible is the creation of a single euro bond market, in the euro area."@en1
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