Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-04-18-Speech-3-359-000"
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"en.20120418.21.3-359-000"2
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"Mr President, the eurozone has experienced several months now, as Mr Verhofstadt reminded us, of a sort of sugar rush, thanks to the ECB’s cheap credit. Now the sugar has worn off and the hangover is well and truly kicking in – and, unsurprisingly, we discover that the eurozone faces all the same problems that it faced beforehand. Solutions will only be identified when our leaders finally decide to put the economics ahead of the politics and hard-headed realism ahead of financial federalist romanticism.
My group, fortunately, represents predominantly non-euro nations, so I feel best placed to offer some impartial, honest and realistic advice. It is all part of the service that we offer, Guy. As I see it, there are two rational options. Either, firstly, Germany and some of the other Northern European States accept that they are going to have to enter into a full-scale fiscal transfer union with permanent flows of money – not just loans – from Northern Europe to Southern Europe, or, alternatively, we allow the lightning rod of this crisis – which has become the poor people of Greece – the opportunity to leave the euro and to devalue their way back into the marketplace.
I can understand why German taxpayers and Dutch taxpayers and others are rather reticent about allowing their hard-earned taxes to flow to a number of unreformed countries. Similarly, I can sympathise with the poor Greeks, who are reluctant to hand over any more of their economic sovereignty. That leaves us only with the option that Greece should be allowed to leave the eurozone, to default and to devalue.
A 10-year-old child could work that out. In fact, a 10-year-old child did work that out. I have here a Wolfson Prize essay from Jurre Hermans, who is a 10-year-old from the Netherlands, and it sets out a plan for how Greece can leave the euro. He won a prize for it. I particularly like the picture that he drew illustrating how all this would successfully work. In his essay, Jurre says ‘I think about solutions’ – which, I have to say, is more than can be said for some of the euro’s leaders. Instead of solutions, what we have seen is finger pointing, and I agree with Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy that it is not right for others – most notably the electioneering Nicholas Sarkozy – to point fingers in the direction of Spain. Instead, it is time for the euro leaders to make a decision. The choices are simple: either Germany and Northern Europe pays, or Greece leaves, or the euro fails. The choice seems obvious to me; it seems obvious to 10-year-old Jurre. I am just sorry that it does not seem so obvious to some of our eurozone leaders."@en1
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