Liege, 17/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - Only a few months ahead of the European elections and forced to admit public disillusionment with Europe, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso used an official visit to Liege in Wallonia to state that Europe was “part of the solution” to today's socio-economic woes and not the problem itself.
Barroso regretted that “the disappointment at the economic and social situation” had been “unfairly attached to Europe”, when, he argued, the situation resulted rather from the attitude of the financial markets and of some governments which allowed their deficits and public debts to go unchecked. Europe had been the “victim of the crisis” which some had “wrongly” called the euro crisis, when it was more correctly the sovereign debt crisis, he suggested. The proof was that the euro was still a stable currency. He said that the crisis had thrown into sharp relief the interdependence that existed among member states.
With the Commission, the guardian of the treaties, often appearing as the inquisitor of national budgets (member states had until 15 October to submit to the Commission their draft budgets for 2014) and the instigator of the austerity, that has, itself, been put in doubt by economists, Barroso defended the crisis exit strategy pursued by the Commission. “Our policies are showing results”, he said, citing the return of investors to Europe.
A demonstration was held in Liege by Comac, the youth movement of the PTB party, to protest against budget cuts in Europe. Comac's had in its sights the budget pact (TSCG), putting in place the “golden rule” on spending which the German-speaking parliament passed on Monday. According to Barroso, this pact is an “intergovernmental initiative” on the part of a number of countries which wanted other mechanisms to “strengthen discipline and avoid repetition of the same errors”. “Growth build on excessive debt is not sustainable”, Barroso stated, adding that no state could have “expenditure higher than revenue” eternally.
For the Commission, budgetary consolidation is “necessary but not enough”. That was why “we argued for a more ambitious budget for Europe”, which would limit the damage in terms of structural funds. Barroso underlined the importance of the help provided by these funds which co-finance projects throughout the EU, citing space research as being “to a large extent” EU funded.
Finally, called on to talk about the democratic deficit of which the European institutions stand accused, Barroso pointed out that his institution was accountable to the Parliament, which was directly elected. Barroso said he favoured “a more direct mechanism of election in Europe”. That, however, would not resolve all the problems as what is needed is “a [European] public space”, in his view (our translation throughout). (EL/transl.fl)