Brussels, 15/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - MEPs are calling for ambitious proposals to set Europe back on the road to growth at the next summit at the start of March. On Greece, political divisions are reappearing: Conservatives and Liberals call on Athens to finally keep its promises if it wants to receive aid, while the European Left is strongly critical of the austerity measures imposed on the Greeks, which, they say, will only make matters worse.
“The time has come for Europe to show ambition”: the EPP Group is hoping for an initiative along the same lines as “a Marshall Plan” or the Community-wide single market of 1992, said group leader Joseph Daul (France), criticising the “mini measures” of the last European Council (see EUROPE 10542). Which country is blocking completion of the internal market, he asked. Daul said he wanted to see a deepening of the services directive, negotiations on the European patent concluded and reductions in social costs for business so that it can take on new workers. However, unlike a UK Eurosceptic who questioned him, he would not suggest getting rid of the working time directive. In competition, rules are necessary - “that's my liberalism”, he stated. Should there be a “Hercules Plan” to kick-start growth and employment, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (ALDE, Germany) wanted to know. Daniel Coh-Bendit mocked the “nice little story” about competitiveness told in the EUROPE 2020 strategy, which, like the Lisbon strategy 2000-2010, has “objectives which are set out but never achieved”.
Danish European Affairs Minister Nicolai Wammen said he was pleased that the European Council had “put growth at the heart of its concerns”. What has now to be done is to create “the conditions for growth and employment”, to bring hope to the millions of young people who have no jobs. The Danish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers hopes that a decision will be taken at the start of March to grant Serbia candidate status for accession to the European Union. Even with a second plan for Greece, strengthening of the banking system and tougher budgetary discipline, if the economy does not believe it, our response to the crisis will remain partial, said Inter-Institutional Affairs Commissioner Maros Sefcovic.
Greece. Daul, in a reference to recent comments from Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes that there would be no dramatic consequences if Greece left the euro, called on the Commission to clarify its position on Greece's place in the eurozone. “Let us be clear: I want Greece to remain a member of the eurozone. Greece has no closer or better ally than the Commission. The Commission is working day and night preparing the Greece plan. (…) Day and night, with no days off, and no summer holidays!” retorted Sefcovic.
Without approving of the comments made by Commissioner Kroes, a member of the Liberal family, Lambsdorff asked that they be properly understood: “People are fed up, they want results. Greece has promised much but done little”. He argued that the sacrifices being asked of the Greek people are needed, as they are the consequence of past mismanagement. “All the sectors where the state is too heavily involved”, such as energy, must be privatised, and the over-sized state apparatus reduced, he added.
Cohn-Bendit immediately retorted that Greece had reduced its deficit by 6%, so it was wrong to say it had not made any effort. He was scathing of the policy towards Greece. The attitude of the “troika” (European Commission, ECB and IMF) was “criminal”: €130 billion in aid is being withheld because Greece has to show savings of €325 million. On these €325 million, the “liberal Taliban of the Commission”, as Cohn-Bendit described them, demand that cuts come from pensions rather than defence. The problems facing Greece will not be resolved by bringing its people to their knees, he said, suggesting that Germany return to €86 billion misappropriated during World War II.
“We don't have ultra-liberal Taliban but officials who are working had to prevent Greece from falling into an abyss and chaos”, rejoined Sefcovic. He went on to say that, certainly, the measures on wages could be criticised, and he asked what alternative was being suggested - default by Greece with the consequences that that would bring? He said that it was the Eurogroup that had called for a 22% reduction in the minimum wage in the private sector. Between 2000 and 2010, wage costs roses by 54% in Greece, compared with 18% in Germany, and the minimum wage, though it fell by 40% between 2010 and 2011 is still €110 higher than its Spanish equivalent and €266 above its Portuguese equivalent, he argued. He laid great stress on the “unprecedented” aid granted to Greece which will receive total investment of 300 billion.
The leader of the S&D Group, Hannes Swoboda (Austria) criticised the moral pressure being applied on wage cuts, dismantling social protection and the doubt being cast over dialogue by the “troika” in complete contradiction of what is said at the G20. With this austerity, Greece will be in a worse situation in EUROPE 2020, predicted Martin Callanan (ECR, UK). Speaking for the GUE/NGL, Lothar Bisky (Germany) called for the reversal of the “diktat” of the EUROPE 2020 strategy, which serves only to strengthen the recession. He called on the ECB to grant loans directly to countries in difficult straits in order to encourage investors to bet on Greece, Portugal and Italy. (MB/transl.rt)