Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-01-18-Speech-3-131-000"
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"en.20120118.18.3-131-000"2
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"Mr President, I am sorry to have to admit it but I think I partly agree with Mr Cohn-Bendit for a change!
Not on all of what he said, obviously, but certainly the bit about the uselessness of this treaty because, while it might well succeed in solving the next crisis – and it may well have prevented this crisis if it had been part of the original Treaty on Monetary Union – it was not and is not going to do anything to solve the immediate difficulties. What is worse, if anything, is that the European Council diverted valuable political energy and resources away from facing the reality of the crisis. In the aftermath, what we have seen from many quarters is an attempt to make scapegoats out of those who neither caused the problem nor have the power to implement a solution. Perhaps this is in order to distract attention from the glaring failure of the summit.
I also agree completely with the Finnish Foreign Minister who said earlier this week that this whole contract is at best unnecessary and at worse harmful, and that Finland has reason to oppose the entire treaty. Congratulations to him for speaking the truth for a change.
But furthermore, let me say a word about the attacks that we have seen in this Parliament, and from the Commission, on the ratings agency. It is a little bit like blaming the weather forecasters for the rain in Brussels – and when the Commission announces that it intends not to tackle the problem but rather to regulate the way in which it is reported, then I know we really are in serious trouble!
Let us speak plainly, because the recommended medicine for many of the eurozone members at the heart of the crisis will kill the patient long before it can possibly achieve a cure. They are being asked to make ultimately futile gestures, and not to pursue serious solutions, because their debts in many cases are simply unsustainable and their fundamental uncompetitiveness is not being addressed by any of these measures. The obligations of continued eurozone membership are strangling the prospects of economic growth for a generation.
In the medium term they need substantial economic reform; in the short term, frankly, they need devaluation. The proponents of this treaty are, in my view, deluding themselves and attempting to delude the rest of us."@en1
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"(Cries of ‘Oh!’ from the floor)"1
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