Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2015-10-14-Speech-1-038-000"
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"en.20151014.13.1-038-000"2
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"Mr President, these are serious times with serious challenges, for which we need serious solutions: solutions that move away from the old mantra that, whatever the problem, more money, more regulation, more Europe is the solution; solutions that stop just talking about solidarity, but actually take account of the needs and the strengths of different EU countries; solutions that force us to be honest about the problems. So when the five Presidents ask what caused the crisis we face in the euro: was it because we did not have enough centralisation of the euro area? Was it because we did not have enough responsibility? Was it because we did not have the right rules in place? No, it is because the rules in place were flagrantly ignored.
For economic and monetary union to work, we all need to be honest that richer euro-area countries will most likely need to make fiscal transfers to poorer euro-area countries for the foreseeable future – and probably for ever. So, instead of highly complex rules for monetary union that powerful countries flout when politically expedient, how about a few rules that we actually follow? Because yet again, political capital is being spent talking about ever closer union instead of delivering ever-growing economies and an ever more competitive Europe.
Renegotiation and reform is not something that growing numbers of people in only one EU Member State want. In my last five years here in Parliament, my political group has grown to be the third-largest group – representing not people from one country, but from 16 different Member States – because people realise that the EU cannot go on as it is. The EU has to change. The EU has to reform.
So of course, ahead of the EU referendum, David Cameron wants a better deal for the UK. But all of us here should want a better deal for the EU. To all my friends here in this House, if you really want the UK to remain a member of the EU, help the British Government to achieve these reforms. Dance, tango with us. But if you want the UK to leave so you can continue to construct a United States of Europe, tell the UK to stop wasting its time and close your mind to reforms.
On the refugee crisis, let us get away from polarising the debate: telling people that you are either pro-immigration or you are anti-immigration; saying ‘let them all in’ or ‘let no one in’; or ‘we should do something’ or ‘we should do nothing’. It actually achieves very little. Therefore, in preparation for the summit, I hope leaders look to ensure that the basic foundations of a functioning and cooperative asylum system are in place: humane and fast processing; immediate returns for failed asylum-seekers; establishing hotspots – I am not quite sure what magazines Mr Pittella reads – or crisis points to quell the current crisis; and combining all of our expertise, willingness and resources available to achieve it – not opening a door and then closing it again; not causing confusion by acting unilaterally.
What we need is to put the foundations of that cooperative system in place so we are better able to offer help to the most vulnerable people escaping this conflict, taking them directly from the camps and bypassing the traffickers. It may not sound as poetic as saying that the EU has a solution to every problem, but it is a responsible way of delivering a solution intended to help people who want to fulfil their dreams and a better future in their own homes. Tackling this issue at source in Syria and Libya needs concerted action, not only at European level but at international level, to get the various militias and their proxies around a table to seek a political solution. Otherwise the only alternative is a military solution in a powder keg, and the alternative is starting something that nobody knows how it will end.
So these are tough and challenging times. But it is time to agree on what we can all do, not order others – or command others – what to do. Time for people to lead with their heads and not their hearts. Time to drop the fanciful wish list and to deliver serious solutions."@en1
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