Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-12-13-Speech-2-096-000"
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"en.20111213.5.2-096-000"2
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"Mr President, firstly, with regard to the overall assessment of the results of this European Council, I believe that we need to be consistent in our analysis. We cannot say, on the one hand, that the financial markets are jointly responsible for the current crisis and the difficulties we have to overcome and, on the other, that we are waiting for them to react before we assess the political decisions that were taken during European summits.
Some of you rightly talked about the intergovernmental treaty and asked questions on the issue. As the Commission President said earlier …
As the Commission President said earlier, an intergovernmental treaty was not our first choice. Our first choice was to revise the Treaty in different ways: Protocol 12, other protocols, the ordinary method for amending the Treaties, the simplified method for amending them, secondary legislation. We had a whole range of legal instruments for achieving our objective. We lacked unanimity. There is nothing I can do about that, and I am not going to stir up controversy on this issue in public. That would prevent us from returning to the negotiating table at a later date in order to agree on a proper Treaty change, one that includes the
of the intergovernmental treaty. One day, we will come together again as 27, so that everyone agrees on those issues on which a consensus could not be reached a few days ago.
Everything we do will be in accordance with the Treaty. Of course, the intergovernmental treaty must respect the Treaty or Treaties of the Economic Union. We will respect the
of the single market. Of course we will! There will be no discrimination; no discrimination will be applied. The Commission will see to that, as indeed it should, by virtue of its role. If possible, the Court of Justice will be included. This is permitted under Article 273.
I shall respond to Mr Schulz with regard to the role of the European Parliament. I was very brief when I spoke on this issue – and on other issues besides. I said that we would, of course, involve the European Parliament in our work, in the process of drafting this intergovernmental treaty, as we have done in the past and as we will do again now, in keeping with previous intergovernmental conferences. More specifically, with regard to the working group that will be carrying out the preparatory work, several Members of the European Parliament will, of course, be involved in it, as will other members of the Euro Working Group and those who are contributing to the joint effort to obtain a sound intergovernmental treaty. I shall say it again: this is not our first choice, it is our second choice, but since this is how it is, we will do everything possible to ensure that it marks a step forward.
Economic policy is a matter of common interest. We made this point in the conclusions of our summit. There are ‘six-pack’ mechanisms – and some of you have mentioned them – that will be extremely important in economic coordination terms. Macro-economic surveillance is a major innovation in our political infrastructure. As regards the Euro Plus Pact, had we been able to work more quickly on Thursday and Friday, we would have had a statement by the Commission President on the state of play, on the implementation of the Euro Plus Pact. The documents are ready. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to hold a very detailed discussion on the issue, but all the information is there.
The major economic reforms are in addition to everything that was decided in the ‘six-pack’, in the Euro Plus Pact. We will discuss them at European summits, at the European Council, to ensure that some countries do not practise a policy of increasing revenue or raising the retirement age while the others lag behind. We need a uniform approach on different levels and we need those at the highest level to be aware of it, too.
We can make a huge amount of progress on different levels. Once again, will this be the magic solution? No. However, I would say this: at some point over the next few years, when this crisis is behind us – because, unlike some of you, I am essentially an optimist – it will become clear what was achieved in 2010 and 2011. Much further down the line, people will say that it was during those decisive years, those difficult years, that the foundations were laid to prevent a repeat of this crisis. We have changed the Union substantially. Moreover, what is now an
will one day be considered an
Honourable Members, as the Commission President just said, unfortunately, there is no magic solution – there really is not. The confidence that has been lost can only be restored bit by bit. The crisis of confidence has been too severe for it to change overnight. We still do not have all the facts, and I am not going to say any more on the matter. However, the fact that some Member States have failed to implement the plans that were requested of them creates mistrust. The fact that some Member States have waited far too long to act – we saw this again in the summer – creates a crisis of confidence that cannot be resolved at EU level. Therefore, the Member States have a huge responsibility.
There are also crises of confidence that are completely unnecessary. On 21 July, we decided to make our rescue instrument, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), more flexible and more effective. The markets thought that we would never be able to get the parliaments of the 17 Member States of the euro area to approve the measures taken and decided on. We succeeded, however.
Thus, in the summer – on 21 July – we took some decisions with the aim of making our temporary rescue fund system more effective. We succeeded in gaining the 17 national parliaments’ support for all that in less than three months; in around two and a half months, in fact. The markets had very serious doubts about whether we would succeed. We did succeed, but in the meantime, mistrust was created and it has never gone away. Consequently, there is no magic solution. There are many aspects that we are not in control of, which explains our current situation.
The third topic of discussion: many of you have emphasised the combination of responsibility and solidarity, and rightly so, because that is the very perspective from which the first European Council that I chaired was held. It is important, in this case, for Greece to shoulder its responsibilities and for us to be ready to show solidarity.
Honourable Members, we have been extremely supportive of each other and we want to be even more so. We have decided to grant EUR 110 billion in bilateral loans to Greece alone. We have created a temporary bailout fund with a EUR 500 billion guarantee. We have taken the decision and we will lay down the definitive rules on the permanent fund, which will be worth at least EUR 500 billion. We have even said that, this time, we will assess in March whether the EUR 500 billion ceiling is sufficient.
Point four: we have just decided to raise approximately EUR 200 billion in bilateral loans, to be channelled through the International Monetary Fund. If you add together all these hundreds of billions of euro, then yes, we are unified. Some might say that we are even too unified.
The Central Bank is not a solidarity tool. The Central Bank is a stability tool: it stabilises inflation and the euro area. Moreover, the Central Bank has recently taken some extremely important decisions, and it will do so again next week. The importance of its decisions will become clear later on. It has decided to make funds available to the banks, even over three-year terms. This is an unprecedented measure, but it has taken it to create stability."@en1
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"(The President again called for silence)"1
"annus mirabilis."1
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