mr president some hours ago i would have said that in spite of the tasteless distortion of cultural emblems and despite articles of ambiguous objectivity referring to outdated stereotypes although the council failed to apprehend the greek economic crisis as a major european issue and the commission failed to use it as a crash test for european cohesion the greek people were ready to support their new socialist government in their struggle for economic and social recovery
now in light of the tragic events of the last few hours in athens where three people died because of the violence which arose due to the hard economic measures i recall mr rasmussen's recent words the downgrading of greece's sovereign credit to junk status is an indictment of the policy of prevarication
i think that it is most urgent for the members of the european parliament to strengthen their struggle for cohesion
i hope that what happened to greece today just a few hours ago will not be contagious and i hope that this may mark on the contrary the beginning of a unanimous effort for the formation of the european identity through solidarity and through partnership
