During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels, MEPs debate on the future of the euro and preparations for eurozone summit.

Brussels

VERHOFSTADT, Guy (Renew, BE)

statement

plenary session

Eurozone (T)

DAUL, Joseph (EPP, FR)

COHN-BENDIT, Daniel (Greens/EFA, FR)

BADIA i CUTCHET, Maria (S&D, ES)

Future of the euro and preparations for eurozone summit: extracts from the debate

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/14005767/ebs70142Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (French), Joseph DAUL (EPP, FR), We urgently need social and economic governance, we need to change our tax structures and finallly we need t make sure that we don't have articial division between some Members of the EU and others, solidaritygoes for all 27 of us. and let me call upon you Representatives of the Council to look directly at Europe , look at what is happening , what will happen if France and other countries fall into the same problems as Greece, what is going to happen to our Euro , what will we able to do for the citizens of Europe, We all have to sure a sense of responsibility and we don't have much time.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Mar&#237;a BADIA i CUTCHET (S&amp;D, ES), We also need ot give ourselves the necessary mechanisms to deal with such crisis in the future. We hope that the COuncil will approve mechanism for financial stability as approved of Socialist parties last year already.

SOUNDBITE (French), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), Little by little Colleagues it is speculation against the Euro, it is an attack on the Euro and not just an attack on Greecen or the public finances in Greece, It is far more serious , it is far broader, so what I hope is once we formalise this in the Council on the 7th we will actually see this machinery working. I hope that because there is no instument available, it has to work, we have to back it.

SOUNDBITE (French), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), Bear in mind what happened in the last 5 months; It took us 5 months to set up this machinery, 3 months to decide on its principles and 2 months to decide its conditions under which it would be applied. Why because it is an intergovernmental system. Once again I think that the first lesson we can learn for the future is that we follow the Commission in its Community approach cause they proposed a European law and we could have decided on that back in December or January right away and it would already have its effect today.It would have stopped the speculation against the Euro.

SOUNDBITE (French), Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), Let me apologize Mr Secretary of State, it is not our fault that it has been delayed, it is the Council, the COuncil that changed the Commission's proposals. There was a Commission proposal that I did criticized but at least it did go far further then what the Council proposed. and we have to do all the Commission's work all over again; I do have a proposal to make for you, if you want financial supervision that's possible in a month, then go along with the Parliament's amendments in the next few days in ECOFIN, it won't take long and you will have financial supervision straight away.

SOUNDBITE (French), Daniel Marc COHN-BENDIT (Greens/EFA, FR), I think we should understzand one thing, what the Papandreou government should do is virtually impossible and I call on ECOFIN and the Heads of governments to think for a moment, they are not able to set up reforms back home.Lok at the time it took France to reform its pension system, look at the time it takes Germany to do this and now we are asking Mr Papandreou to change everything in 3 months. You are completly crazy! and the prove is what is happening now in Greece; we are not giving Mr Papandreou enough time to reach consensus in Greece ; Nobody in Greece identify with the State.

SOUNDBITE (French), Daniel Marc COHN-BENDIT (Greens/EFA, FR), We have to changez the Treaties, Comrades here in this Parliament we have the possibility to tkae an initiative to change the Treaty so let's not wait for Council, they are incapable to take a decision, let's take the common initiative by this Parliament to amend the Treaties so that we can have a European monetary Fund that can take on the speculators.

SOUNDBITE (French), Daniel Marc COHN-BENDIT (Greens/EFA, FR), I would like to ask the Commission to involve Dg employement in managing all of this in actually what is happening to Greece and I call on the Council to say to the IMF to involve the International Labor organisation in what is happening in Greece, because we are talking about human beings they are problems of jobs at stake, it should not just be finance that dictates, we should think about solidarity to the workers, so DG employment and the ILO could try to act as a corrective to thos who decide on the basis of financial terms.