mr president in the council and the commission there are many who believe that we can only succeed in the global economy if we downgrade workers rights our collective bargaining systems and our pensions
in other words we must dilute we are told our social model
public finances are to be reorganised with the single focus of bringing public debt down to an arbitrary sixty of gdp and deficits are basically to be ruled out
that is the same council which if i remember well agreed on a europe twenty twenty strategy but it does not seem to care where the money to fulfil that strategy will come from
if we have to significantly cut our public debt year on year if we have to avoid deficits above one which the commission proposes and if we have to do all of this in a low-growth environment with high unemployment how can we possibly deliver on the twenty twenty strategy
this is a wrong-headed economic strategy of cost competitiveness and extreme fiscal austerity and it will set europe on a declining path at a crucial moment in its history
president barroso is not here at the moment but i think he needs to tell the council that it needs to redefine the political agenda in at least three areas
first we must complete economic and monetary union by creating a european stability agency for common eurobonds and i am glad that president barroso did not rule out the idea of eurobonds today
this will end speculative attacks bring liquidity to the market for government debt and cut the overall cost of debt for the eurozone
second we must rebalance the proposed legislation on economic governance
we agree that fiscal discipline will require strong rules and strong implementation but we must also align this with the proper implementation of the europe twenty twenty objectives in each country and that must be reflected in the legislation
finally we need new public financing sources
the crisis has wiped out years of budgetary efforts
a financial transactions tax is well overdue and it is a scandal that the council seems to be frozen in the headlights and unable to make a decision on this tax
these are the reforms we need urgently
