Brussels, 16/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Brussels on Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 February, MEPs and parliamentarians from the 27 member states will discuss “a new deal for European economic recovery” at an event jointly chaired by Hans-Gert Pöttering and the speakers of the Czech Parliament.
Nobody should believe that protectionism or a Napoleon-like vision of some politicians will get us out of this crisis, said the speaker of the Czech Senate Pøemysl Sobotka (ODS). Confirming the need for coordination at EU level, the speaker at the Czech Chamber of Deputies, Miloslav Vlèek (CCSD), agreed that the depth of the crisis and the interconnection of economies meant that solutions restricted to member state economies alone were bound for failure. The crisis, he said, is a time for all the European family to seek cohesion and was a test for Europe because no single country is strong enough to solve the crisis alone.
The EU is relatively well-placed to deal with the global crisis but financing is still problematic in the immediate term, said EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia. He said that monetary policies and budget boosting would be in vain while the credit markets continue to dysfunction. He said that action had to be coordinated globally and Europe had to make a decisive contribution to the work of the G20 and beyond at the spring summit of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, adding his voice to the calls for protectionism to be avoided.
The debate is focussing on the short-term, but medium-term obligations must not be ignored, said the President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet. He said he wanted a policy to be designed that was not simply a return to the previous set-up because budget policies should not simply stimulate short-term demand but should encourage long-term structural changes. He called for tighter regulatory control of the financial sector and greater monitoring of global imbalances. He said the world had focussed too long on the emerging economies but the economies of industrial countries also need to be monitored in a very strict manner, and the EU could play a leading role here.
Klaus-Heiner Lehne (EPP-ED, Germany), joint rapporteur with Edit Herczog (PES, Hungary) at the EP on the Lisbon strategy, said a new deal didn't mean returning to the previous era of the single market. Rather than protectionism and the member states taking on serious debt, Herczog said suitable pragmatic solutions were required that focussed on citizens, stressing the human nature of the challenge. (A.B./transl.fl)