mr president we have had a heavyweight week in committee with the president of the ecb the president of the euro group and the nominee for ecb vice-president
we all agree that stronger surveillance of member states with accurate statistics to enable early intervention is a key requirement
work on this has started including audit powers for eurostat and the committee is impatient to assert its enhanced role to help
but there are indicators beyond the stability and growth pact that need respecting too
greater fiscal coordination linked to macro-economic stability is an option
but this has been tried of course
remember the row in two thousand and one over the ecofin warning to ireland during a time of fiscal surplus
so we know the lesson exerting discipline in times of surplus is even harder than policing deficit
and just like in the financial markets failure to do so ends in crisis
on imbalances between member states the focus should be on loss of competitiveness often hand in hand with foot-dragging on the single market and failure to address structural reforms including pensions
this too does not necessarily have a deficit trigger
and finally as mr scicluna said liquidity provision by the ecb has been a valuable tool through the crisis but it has not been passed on to the real economy
often it has simply been reinvested in assets bearing higher interest
and i dare say some of these were even recirculated on repo to the ecb
no doubt in some quarter such activity is even viewed as deserving of a bonus
so i say should we really listen to the pleas of such banks on new capital adequacy implementation dates
