Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-04-18-Speech-3-352-000"
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"en.20120418.21.3-352-000"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in terms of European fiscal discipline, we have achieved a lot in a short space of time. What we did was necessary, because in 2008 and last autumn, we were on the brink of disaster and we almost lost everything: the euro, our financial system, but, above all, our credibility in the world and our social model.
Ladies and gentlemen, we must make the most of this new impetus to step up a gear and urgently refocus the EU’s action and budget on real growth. I would like to thank the Commission – José Manuel and his team – for their work, which is no mean feat, and I also call on the Member States to move up a gear as they are the ones with deficits. It is now time for them to move back up into top gear to restore growth and jobs.
We now have the instruments for greater discipline. We needed to do all of this so that Europe could regain its credibility. We needed to do all of this to create the conditions for a return to growth. Growth which, being the only way to get us out of crisis, must be at the heart of our debates, starting with this afternoon’s. We cannot achieve growth by passing laws, but what we can do is create the conditions for a return to sustainable growth. How so?
Firstly, by focusing on European policies for growth and employment and putting others on hold. This means acting quickly to conduct a qualitative audit of European public expenditure so that we can make informed decisions. The EU budget must be one of the key instruments for kick-starting the European economy.
Therefore, having done it with fiscal discipline, I propose a joint initiative committing us to growth, an initiative that would make the EU budget a reserve for investment for all of us. The growth principle needs to be the equivalent of the principle of subsidiarity. This principle would mean that each proposal, each EU policy would, in future, have to demonstrate how it contributes to growth. No potential for growth, no money. That should be our rule for the next two years. This principle would mean that we could, for example, examine the issue of trade agreements. Are we gaining market shares or are we losing them? Are we gaining jobs or are we losing them?
Another point close to my heart, as you know, is the single market. Twenty years after its launch, as I have already said and I will go on saying, we have a duty to achieve it fully. Our 23 million small and medium-sized enterprises need it, because unlike the major players, they cannot adapt to the competitiveness gaps that still exist today. We therefore have to do it for our SMEs, the very ones who, over the past decade, have created 85% of new jobs.
Business leaders are now being accused of being rich. Did you know that, like me, these bosses of small and medium-sized enterprises earn at most just EUR 1 000 to 1 200 and are looking for contracts that will guarantee employment to the workers of their SMEs. Here, too, Mr Barroso, we need to support them so that the banks offer finance to small and medium-sized enterprises. Instead, they are dropping them, and that is not right. We need to establish a more effective support. We need to adopt a much stricter approach in order to maintain support for small and medium-sized enterprises. These are jobs that exist and we do not want to lose them.
On the completion of the single market, let me add another point: we need to reduce paperwork and red tape which, alone, costs our economy nearly EUR 40 billion. We need to simplify matters in order to move on.
Ladies and gentlemen, the growth we need to kick-start our economy is not the growth of the future. What we need, right now, is to rapidly increase the added value that these companies bring. What we need is productivity gains in public services. What we need is an employment policy adapted to the new situation and I welcome the proposals adopted by the Commission this morning in this regard.
The markets have already shown renewed confidence in the Union. This confidence will remain thanks to the unprecedented discipline and solidarity of Europeans. Such solidarity was inconceivable just two years ago. I also welcome the Commission’s plan for putting the Greek economy and its public finances back on a sustainable path and for guaranteeing financial stability in that country and in the euro area as a whole. It is now up to our Greek friends, whose courage I commend, to stay the course, before and after the upcoming elections."@en1
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