Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-02-15-Speech-3-413-000"
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"en.20120215.21.3-413-000"2
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"Mr President, another famous Monty – I refer of course to the equally famous Monty Python – taught us to always look on the bright side of life. Although the economic news is gloomy, there are one or two reasons for Italy to be optimistic. On this point, I agree with Mr Verhofstadt because, of course, Italy – thankfully – is not Greece. Nevertheless, the national current account has been mismanaged, going from a healthy surplus to a nearly crippling deficit in merely a decade.
It appears so far that the markets respect your leadership, Prime Minister. 10-year bond yields are almost at a manageable position thanks partly to your proposed economic reforms, but mainly to the actions of the European Central Bank, which has – crucially – bought you some time. In Italy, fiscal consolidation and economic reform could possibly work, but in Greece, they are clearly not working. An orderly default and a Greek euro exit may be bad politics for Angela Merkel, but I believe it is the ‘least worst’ option now for the euro area and for the EU as a whole.
Fiscal consolidation will ease the current crisis, but in isolation, it is not the long-term solution to our economic weakness. The answer, as many people here have said, is growth, and we have no shortage of policy statements calling for growth and jobs. But let us be honest: so far, they have all failed, because they focus more on buzz-words and on gestures aimed at keeping everyone happy and are based on the premise that somehow, politicians can create jobs. This is the kind of bureaucratic, statist attitude that got us into this situation in the first place.
Of course, there is one recent economic policy paper that is being put into practice: I refer to the Mario Monti paper on the single market, which is being enthusiastically championed in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection by my colleague, Malcolm Harbour. In my view, the greatest problem we face in Europe is that competition has been undermined by the focus on harmonisation instead of liberalisation – and you need only look at EU employment policy to see the devastating impact that it has had on many of our economies. The single market has the ability to deliver more liberal and flexible economies across the EU. The answer is not more harmonisation, rules or red tape – and it is certainly not more Europe. The answer, in my view, is a better Europe: a Europe of liberalisation and competition.
Professor Monti, as Prime Minister of Italy, talking about democracy (you were, of course, not elected by any citizens, although I accept that you were elected by the Italian Parliament), you have a great opportunity to articulate this vision and champion economic restructuring and liberalisation not just in Italy, but across the rest of Europe as well. If you succeed in this immensely difficult and challenging task, you will have the support of my Group in your efforts."@en1
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