mr president we have heard quite a lot about coordination but i am beginning to wonder whether coordination is any longer sufficient whether we need to move to solidarity rather than just coordination because the crisis has moved from just being banks which is bad enough to being a crisis of countries
just as the coordination has justifiably moved up from national to european to global levels perhaps we now need to consider whether more solidarity is necessary
i would ask the commission and the council whether they are indeed addressing the issue of the global institutions as the oral question specifically requests about the international monetary fund or alternative institutions that might perform the solidarity role on a global basis
my second question would be to do with the type of stimulus we should be looking for in fiscal stimulus if that is indeed the preferred route
should value added tax be the route and should it allow for reduced rates of value added tax from the high or middle rate down to the lower rate in certain areas and what are we doing about that
and is it not much better to have it concentrated in that way rather than spread widely on a much lower reduction level
regulation we hear a lot especially from our leftward-leaning friends that we must have more and more regulation destroy the hedge funds and private equity credit rating agencies and so forth
however can i just urge the commission and the council to consider the following
we must wait we must think hard and carefully and we must at all costs avoid unintended consequences
if new regulation is justified and it may be it must be the right regulation and it must not turn out to be an impediment to recovery and prevent or delay that recovery
in some ways i would really like to give mr mccreevy support for his measured reaction to the problems and not condemn him as many of our colleagues seem to wish to do
lastly public finances
the stability and growth pact affects both euro countries and non-euro countries
if temporary excess deficits are justified and that is a big if they must be temporary they must be recuperable to a realistic schedule and if some countries can afford the debt but others cannot then surely we return to this question of mutual solidarity
i would ask the commission and the council to tell me what they consider realistic schedules for dealing with this issue
