Brussels, 29/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - Former president of the European Commission Jacques Delors discussed solutions to the crisis in Europe at a conference on Wednesday 28 March organised by the head of the S&D Group at the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, and French MEP Harlem Désir, who launched the “Pour une Alternative Socialiste Européenne” appeal. Giving unconditional backing to the call for a Socialist alternative in Europe, Jacques Delors welcomed the Social Democrat offensive for a European renaissance and was happy to come and support the start of such a move. Swoboda explained that Socialists disliked the way the European Union was blindly careering after austerity, preferring a more European solution, rather than less.
Delors said that the budget pact was a “gas factory” that was too complicated to put into operation because a vital component is lacking - development and growth for young people - and the pact therefore needs to be revised. He said that Europe was losing vital, existential, solidarity to the individualistic right wing.
Jacques Delors said that economic and monetary union (EMU) was caught in a vice between the Scylla and Charybdis of the ever-smouldering fire on the financial markets (the main argument used by people who want the budget pact to be compulsory) and the danger of stagnation, which would lead Europe into decline. The problems with the euro are simply hiding the real problems of Europe, he added.
Delors says that the current crisis is partly due to the abuses inherent in the global financial system, but there are also serious problems to be resolved in EMU, the most serious being the lack of coordination between economic and monetary policies. He said the euro used to protect Europe from its own stupidity and nobody paid any attention to the balance of payments between EU nations, he lamented, until the deep crisis had set in, most visibly in Greece, Spain and Portugal.
Disliking the European Social Democrat idea of giving the ECB greater powers, Delors does not want the ECB to become the lender of last resort (like the United States system) because that would be a short-term short-cut solution. It would work effectively in the short-term, of course, he said, but would be a huge danger to Europe over the long-term.
Delors said the missing link in EU governance is stronger cooperation among nation states. He explained that the EU's diversification and specialisation are its strength and life-force, but regretted the fact that the cohesion policies had not worked and the lack of “territorial solidarity”, which were the true levers of growth and jobs. He said again and again that he was in favour of stronger cooperation among the eurozone nations, but not to the detriment of the EU27.
Another invitee at the conference, Belgian public enterprise minister Paul Magnette, explained the Social Democrats' responsibility for the sovereign debt crisis. Firstly, because the Social Democrats were in power in Europe in the 1990s but had struggled to get their views across when the Right came to power in 2004. The Left had unfortunately abandoned Europe, leaving it to the right wing politicians. He pointed out that national governments are responsible for introducing austerity, but Europe is responsible for organising a return to growth. Magnette urged the European Left to politicise Europe in order to combat the technocrats and populists. (SD/transl.fl)