Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-23-Speech-2-092-000"
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"en.20121023.5.2-092-000"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin by thanking Rebecca Harms and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs for the decision taken yesterday evening that a recommendation be made not to elect Mr Mersch this week. I think this is the right decision. I also see it as sending out a signal which, hopefully, when the time comes, will secure majority support in this House, because it really does send out completely the wrong message to tell us that Europe should continue to be run solely by men, and to say that everything arising in the various policy areas dealt with by the European Union, whatever is necessary to safeguard social and indeed regional cohesion, can only be dealt with by male representatives. I think this is the wrong form of representation, at least in the majority of cases, although I admit that there are exceptions.
The results of the most recent summit are relatively limited. A previous speaker said that at the end, two victors appeared in front of the microphones and cameras and went through the usual ritual of saying that there were no losers. There are losers, however. Ordinary people are the losers. People within the European Union have lost out because once again, we are playing for time, because no one has given any thought to the fact that European policy needs to be corrected as a matter of urgency!
I will come back to the example of the Compact for Growth and Jobs in a moment. You surely cannot seriously be proposing in your recommendations or in the Council’s decisions that, ultimately, the Structural Funds must be reprogrammed to fund the Compact for Jobs and Growth. This would mean that 25 % of the ESF would be under threat. With that proposal, you are also putting a question mark over the future of the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion. In the fight against poverty, we are talking about the fate of 120 million in Europe. Then you say that the Nobel Peace Prize for Europe is well-deserved. It simply does not add up!
Therefore, which signals should the summit have sent out? Firstly, there should have been a recognition that austerity policies do not automatically lead to more growth. If the International Monetary Fund can do it, it should be child’s play for the European Union to admit that these policies have plunged hundreds of thousands more people into poverty and social exclusion. We do not need an undemocratic fiscal pact which erodes the rights of the national parliaments and especially the European Parliament. We need a solidarity pact, one which is designed for 99 % of the people of Europe, to replace the austerity pact from 1 % of the people. We need sustainable growth which can only be achieved with decent work, equitable redistribution and appropriate contributions from those who caused the crisis in the first place.
Let us take a look at Greece again: the next tranche will amount to EUR 600 million and is supposed to be spent entirely on repaying the national debt. That means that almost EUR 30 billion have now been earmarked solely for the banks. Portugal was in a similar situation: of the EUR 78 billion allocated, only EUR 8 billion were actually earmarked for the public budget. What you are talking about, and what is being practised here, is certainly not the right balance. That needs to change, and that is what we are demanding. The timetable – the roadmap – for the banking union is really only a brief moment. Why will you not admit that this is simply about splitting up the national banks? You do not mention the ECB’s mandate and role as a lender of last resort or the ancillary roles which could be played by the European investment banks in this context. You need to change your approach. You need to change course – and then perhaps we can talk about the Nobel Peace Prize being well-deserved!"@en1
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