Brussels, 05/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of a summit of eurozone heads of state to formalise the EU aid package for Greece, several MEPs are calling on Europe's leaders to set up a truly permanent mechanisms to ensure financial stability in the eurozone. Addressing the European Parliament on Wednesday 5 May, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said he had faith in the Greek aid programme and the eurozone leaders would be sending a clear message on Friday. He said that at the end of last week, a critical mass of member states providing aid had built up. He said that the financial markets were not wholly convinced but they were wrong not to trust the mechanism as the European Commission will do everything necessary to ensure the financial markets are not used as a playground for speculators. Earlier on, after an EU-Canada summit, the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, criticised what he described as wholly irrational moves on the markets in response to unfounded rumours.
Joseph Daul (EPP, France) said that although the EU response did not always match up with the EP's demands, at least there is an EU response. He said the member states had to change their mindsets. Daul, who is the chair of the EPP at the EP, said that people should call for an economic Europe, a social Europe and a fiscal Europe. On behalf of the S&D party, Maria Badia i Cutchet of Spain said that the past few weeks had been very destabilising and called for the setting up of a European Financial Stability Mechanism. Although not initially won over to the idea of a mixed mechanism of loans from individual countries, the chair of the ALDE Group, Guy Verhofstadt, hoped the Greek aid programme would put an end to speculation against the euro. He said that the new programme was the only instrument on offer and therefore had to be supported but the same type of response could not be repeated in the future. Verhofstadt said that a “structural” mechanism was needed in order to be able to respond as quickly as possible. He criticised member states for their slowness to react, explaining that this was because it was an “intergovernmental” system, but if the European Commission's recommendation of an EU loan had been followed, then stability could have been restored much earlier. This idea was echoed by co-chair of the Greens/EFA, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who called for more account to be taken to the social aspects of the austerity measures being forced on Greece, commenting that what the Papandreou government must now do was practically impossible because in the normal run of things, member states are not every capable of reforming even the state pension system. He regretted that Greece was not even being given enough time to build consensus, adding that one should not demand the impossible. People used to say, “I want my money back”, but one gets the impression that the other member states are now clamouring, “I want to make money on the back of Greece”, commented Cohn-Bendit wryly. GUE-NGL leader Lothar Bisky (Germany) said that one again it was the taxpayer who had to cough up and pay the bill. He argued that the polluter pays principle should apply and the banks should therefore be required to pay back the taxpayers' bailouts rather than speculating on the euro. In the future, leaders should take action faster and find a permanent mechanism, explained Nikolaos Salavrakos (Greece), speaking for the EFD Group. (A.B./transl.fl)