Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-01-15-Speech-2-392-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20130115.26.2-392-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, it seems that Chancellor Faymann understands some of the problems which are facing Europe, and yet his solution of course is more Europe. This represents the triumph of hope over experience, of ideological prejudice over everyday reality. The fact is that the European Union is in long-term relative decline. In 1990, the European Union amounted to around 30% of global GDP. Today the figure is about 20% of global GDP. By 2050 it might be 10% of global GDP, or even less if we choose to cling on to emission targets which would scarcely sustain a primitive agrarian economy. The reasons for this decline are not hard to find. First of all, the European Union is a customs union, but customs unions are an old-fashioned sub-optimal 19th century trade model, so much so that virtually nobody else in the world chooses to use them.
Secondly, the EU’s customs union is overlaid by the dead weight of hugely expensive and onerous regulation which is squeezing the lifeblood out of our industry. European regulation is credibly estimated at costing GBP 100 billion a year, and that is just in the UK.
Thirdly, we have an energy policy which is giving Europe the most expensive energy in the world. It is undermining our competitiveness. It is driving energy-intensive businesses offshore, taking their jobs and their investment with them. It is forcing households and pensioners into fuel poverty, yet it is failing to cut emissions. The EU is squandering money on wind farms which, by the way, Chancellor, are hopelessly unsustainable. The EU is mortgaging our grandchildren and yet it is achieving nothing.
Fourthly, we have the disaster of the single currency, which was described by former British Chancellor Lord Lawson as the most irresponsible political adventure of the post-war era. Mr Barroso boasts that the worst of the euro crisis is over. Do not believe him. Nothing the EU has done will address the massive imbalances in competitiveness between the North and the South. It will take more than a few ad hoc bail-outs. It will require permanent long-term massive fiscal transfers from North to South, but those will be unacceptable to German taxpayers, just as the austerity, the unemployment, the grinding deflation you are seeking to impose in southern Europe will be unacceptable to voters. The EU itself may break up.
You already have a divisive policy for fiscal and banking union in the eurozone which is driving a wedge between the eurozone and the rest. In my country, the UK, there is increasing opposition to EU membership. The Prime Minister seeks to appease this opposition by demanding repatriation of powers, but his demands will not be welcome in Brussels and will not satisfy the people either. The voters have understood that EU membership is making us poorer, and less democratic and less free. The people want freedom, independence and democracy. They have concluded rightly that we shall be better off out."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples