Brussels, 19/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The anti-European statements flying around in the Hemicycle building of the European Parliament on Wednesday 19 January left the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, “astounded”, as he put it. He called on the majority of MEPs, those who want a European solution to the economic crisis, not to let themselves be divided by “nationalist commentary” and “petty differences” of approach at the EP plenary debate on the EU's response to the eurozone debt crisis in the wake of the December 2010 European Council.
Barry Madlener (NI, the Netherlands) slammed the financial aid for the eurozone that has been introduced to take money from the Dutch to pay people in the poorest countries who wangled their way into the eurozone. The chair of the EFD group, the UK's Nigel Farage, accused Barroso and the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, of trying to take advantage of the crisis to get greater powers for themselves. He said it was not a union of Europe but a union of debt and recommended that Ireland and Greece leave the eurozone and devalue their “new” currency. You call yourselves democratic!!! People are the slaves of the financial markets that manipulate you like puppets on a string, replied Joe Higgins (GUE/NGL, Ireland). Where were you when after the war, Europe was financing your farming and your infrastructure and building the single market to sell your products, asked Barroso, highlighting their selfishness and narrow-mindedness. He hammered his point home, pointing out that the very idea of differences among member states is extremely dangerous for the European project - comments welcomed by a warm round of applause and cheers from MEPs.
Too little, too late? On behalf of the S&D, UK Labour MEP Stephen Hughes regretted the feeble and rather late results of the European Council and the lack of a constructive response to the EP's idea of creating eurobonds. Certain that integration was a step-by-step process, Van Rompuy pointed out that the debt crisis had taken the EU by surprise because nothing was there and all the systems had to be invented in the heat of the moment.
On behalf of the ALDE, Sylvie Goulard (France) criticised the European leaders who want a limited revision of the Lisbon Treaty to set up a European Stability Mechanism (ESM) in 2013 but not to provide the population with the answers they are waiting for, particularly in terms of jobs. The EP has given its agreement to work, under the present treaty, on reforming economic governance in Europe. Answering that the Commission believes it is possible to set up an ESM without changing the European Treaty, Barroso urged those who want to go further and develop an EU approach to be responsible. Echoing him, Van Rompuy urged MEPs not to raise the stakes to test who is the more European.
Economic governance. The general debate showed that for the European Parliament, management of the eurozone debt crisis and budget discipline for eurozone countries have to go hand-in-hand with measures to encourage economic recovery. Van Rompuy signalled for the first time a degree of flexibility about member states' ambitions for reform of economic governance - we may have to go further than decided in the taskforce, he said, but did not explain what he meant by that. MEPs, the Commission and the ECB criticise the Council of Ministers' desire, under the leadership of Germany and France, to keep room for manoeuvre in the system for introducing penalties on eurozone countries infringing the stability and growth pact.
Everyone is aware of the serious nature of the situation, said the chair of the EPP Group, Joseph Daul (France), adding that countries' public finances needed to be cleaned up, bringing budget policy and also fiscal and social policies closer together and agreeing on EU bailout systems. Otherwise, the more disciplined countries will refuse to pick up the bill, he warned. He called on the Commission to unveil ambitious proposals for the upcoming financial framework.
Calling the economic governance strategy “ineffective”, Hughes said that the Annual Growth Review that marked the start of the European semester is an attack on social rights and collective bargaining rights (see EUROPE 10292). Greater flexibility on the labour market is required, along with the lifting of trade obstacles, said the UK's Timothy Kirkhope, on behalf of the ECR. For the Greens/EFA, Rebecca Harms said European banking had to be restructured. France's Jean-Pierre Audy pointed out that there is not yet a parliamentary zone in the eurozone and to fill this gap, he said that national parliaments could be included in the political scrutiny of the new mechanisms that will be set up. Portugal's Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) said that she had seen a rise in poverty in Europe at the same time as speculation on sovereign debt was making the rich even richer. This was not the idea behind the eurozone, she said, calling for greater economic recovery measures at EU level. (M.B./transl.fl)