Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-11-20-Speech-2-018-000"
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"en.20121120.3.2-018-000"2
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". – Mr President, I think it is now clear to all of us why we talk of ‘four Presidents’ and not ‘five Presidents minus one’. They did not want to involve Parliament because of a clear understanding of the difference between a Van Rompuy paper, which becomes more evanescent with every version, and the one submitted by Ms Thyssen on behalf of us all. The difference in ambition is blindingly obvious. Clearly, either Parliament would have very much regretted finding itself in a gathering of Presidents ultimately very lacking in ambition or it would have struggled to make its voice heard, since its level of ambition clearly placed it in a minority.
As Ms Thyssen clearly stated, Europe needs a federal leap. None of us will get out of this on our own, not even Germany! I hope the current economic downturn, also affecting Germany, will help our German friends to realise we are all in this together.
Ms Thyssen shows ambition on all aspects of what this federal Europe must become. As regards the budget aspect, she dares, on behalf of all of us, to challenge a number of taboos and, in particular, to make it clear that it is absolutely essential that we work not just on budgetary spending but also on revenue, and that we cannot ensure adequate budgetary revenue without moving from a competitive approach to one of cooperation. The same is true on the issue of pooling debt, this clearly being an expression which Herman Van Rompuy is no longer able to write. He must have forgotten how to spell it or what it means. In any case, Parliament dares to write it in its report. It is an absolute necessity.
In terms of economic union, we see Parliament clearly coming out in favour of stimulating investment in Europe. How else are we to understand this idea of making the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy more binding, it being nothing other than the European Union’s investment strategy? I am very glad that Ms Wortmann-Kool herself emphasised the need to act in this direction. We cannot, in my view, have an economic policy without a highly robust investment aspect. Similarly, a solid European budget, a European budget with its own resources, is just one element of this investment strategy. That is another statement that is completely taboo in other circles. We will see what this week’s Council brings. As regards banking union, Ms Thyssen points out, on our behalf, that we cannot design a banking union without establishing a single regime for resolving banking crises and compensating depositors.
Where a taboo is really broken is on the issue of social union. It is true that this is a difficult topic: we all have different histories in terms of social security and protection arrangements, but this report states the need for a form of social convergence, though not a race to the bottom. This, in my view, is another sign of ambition on the part of Parliament.
Lastly, democratic union. This is the area where we were expecting the ‘five Presidents minus one’, who already gave us two reports before the summer, in which the democratic chapter became more diluted each time. There is now no trace of it, whereas in Parliament’s report we do not simply say that it would be good for Parliament to have occasional exchanges with national parliaments. This text proposes giving Parliament, the Parliament of the European Union and of the euro area, real powers to take decisions and shape the broad lines of European economic and social policy.
I would simply like to close by saying that we do not have much time. Today, one European in four is at risk of poverty and social exclusion. One in four of our fellow citizens! The speaker from Hungary reminded us of that fact. Destroying the social fabric has its consequences. If you add to that the reminder from the World Bank this week – to the effect that we are in the process of bursting the planet in terms of its physical limits – and the fact that climate change carries inherent risks for humanity’s existence, I think we have to realise that we do not have much time and must act now. We know that otherwise we run the risk of seeing this continent simply descending into violence."@en1
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