Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-05-22-Speech-2-364-000"
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"en.20120522.18.2-364-000"2
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"Mr President, with your permission, I would like to add briefly to the statement that you made yesterday about Italy.
It has repeatedly been said that the entire growth problem could lead to higher inflation and that is a social problem. What could be more unsocial than our current levels of unemployment? Our group believes that the most unsocial thing of all is unemployment and we must combat it by means of growth and investment.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to express my solidarity and sympathy with the Italian people, who have been so hard hit by two serious events: the brutal attack at the Morvillo-Falcone school in Brindisi, where the young Melissa Bassi lost her life, and the powerful earthquake which hit Emilia-Romagna, an area I have often visited and whose strength and tenacity I am familiar with.
The victims and their families must know that we are with them, that the whole of Europe supports them and that together we will overcome this.
What does this have to do with the situation in Europe? I believe that it has a great deal to do with it, because the sense of unity and solidarity which has been shown within Italy itself and which we are showing towards Italy is something that I would like to see in the context of the major disaster that has occurred in Europe in the area of unemployment. I am of the opinion that we must do everything possible to ensure that this informal summit and later the formal summit have the courage to tackle the serious problem of unemployment, because we are in a position to prevent it from increasing and to take active measures to combat it, which is perhaps not as easy in the case of an earthquake. However, unemployment is not an act of God. It is a man-made problem and we can stop it from happening.
In our view, the starting point must be to encourage investment. We have reached an historic low point with regard to both public and private investment and it is no coincidence that our unemployment rates are so high, given that our investment levels are so low.
Regardless of whether we extend the deadlines for achieving budget stability, but without putting it at risk, or whether we go back to Mario Monti’s golden rule, which I believe would be very helpful and which states that certain investments, especially in Europe 2020 projects, must be removed from the deficits, we must make investment possible, so that we can return to growth. Of course, we need the funding to do this and it could come from the financial transaction tax that we will debate and decide on tomorrow or from the fight against tax evasion, as Mr Rehn has mentioned.
Ultimately, we need project loans on a suitable scale. We must provide the European Investment Bank with more funding. Of course, we also need to make better use of the Structural Funds. Finally, we also need something like eurobonds, because we must also reduce the cost of borrowing. This is a long-term project, but it is important for us to tackle the problems now.
All of this does not put budget discipline at risk. On the contrary, it even gives us the option of achieving budget discipline earlier, if can put in place these measures to stimulate growth. When people ask what is happening with budget discipline in general, I can only say that we have the ‘six-pack’. In committee, the decision was made to introduce the ‘two-pack’. If the committee members held back in this area, this was because we wanted to add something specifically with regard to the subject of growth. In essence, we want to see growth and investment. I hope that we can reach an appropriate solution together here in Parliament.
In conclusion, I would like to say a few words on the subject of Greece. It is true that this is a difficult situation and we must be aware of all the democratic decisions being made in Greece. However, it is important for the Greeks to realise that they must decide for themselves whether they want to stay in or leave the euro area, but that this will, of course, have consequences for Europe. It is clear that reforms are needed in Greece and perhaps to an even greater extent than before. When there is a government in office which is prepared to implement these reforms, then we can talk about the necessary relief measures, in particular, with regard to social issues. We have been saying for a long time, including in this House, that not everything that the troika has proposed is socially just and acceptable. However, first there must be a government in place which commits to the reform programme in Greece and which is prepared to make tough sacrifices. Then it will be possible to negotiate with the government in order to introduce the relief measures which will ultimately result in Greece being able to balance its budget."@en1
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