Plenary speech by Sharon Bowles MEP on Economic Governance
"Every week the press is filled with news of a new or modified proposal from a country, the European Council and the President of the Commission.
"I commend the President of the European Central Bank because he has paid heed to the discussions and reports in the European Parliament and recognises our direction and determination.
"The competitiveness pact and its evolution is a case in point - we have a richer tapestry of ideas in our amendments to the economic governance package. So we will have little difficulty in moving into co-decision to merge the outcomes of the positions that we take in Parliament and Council.
"On growth we all need to be serious. We should not cherry pick from the single market nor continue to get it wrong. The single market is not about a fortress and a level playing field within - it is about external competitiveness that a large single market can generate - so it is intimately mixed with the recovery side of economic governance.
"On a permanent financial stability mechanism, this must be capable of evolving over time, subject to governance and priorities.
"To German people, convulsed with the transfer union issue, I say look at what accompanies the demands from your own government - recapitalisation of banks and purchase of sovereign debt in the secondary market.
"This is because Germany's banks will take 10 years to recognise their impaired assets from the crisis - including sovereign debt; it is because Germany's banks won't meet new international rules for bank capital. Transfer to German banks should be an issue on your lips, and that is why you need the mechanism like all the Eurozone."
ENDS