Sharon Bowles MEP on Radio 5 Live

To hear Sharon's views re Eurozone debt crisis on Radio 5 Live click on this link (21 mins 30 seconds in):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b013yw1s

Or read the transcript:

Radio 5 Live, Tuesday 30^th August 2011

Transcript of Sharon's interview

"The problem with the package is that, the latest package, is that some of it has to be approved by national parliaments and we had the situation that everybody was on holiday and, in particular, it has to be approved by the German parliament and they wont be doing that until sometime in September so we had the rather awkward situation that the political world expected the markets to sit on their hands for weeks over the summer while everyone was on holiday.

"That, to some extent, is my view (in response to point about politicians being away over the summer) although at one point I wondered if I was the only politician around. To give them their due, I think that the higher-level people haven't had a summer. Like me, the emails and the phone have just been going the whole time. The problem is, there are some of my continental colleagues that don't really respect the markets or believe that you should follow the markets and indeed, Jean-Claude Junker, the President of the Eurogroup, who was speaking in a later session, actually said 'well, we shouldn't believe the markets' and got a big applause - there was a little bit of playing to the crowd but that is the attitude amongst many and they think 'well, politics is above the markets and politics has to dictate'. Well I take the view that you've got to do a bit of both: you can't be a slave to the markets but neither can you ignore them, especially when they're representing investors who've got money that might be at stake.

"(In response to point about growth versus debt) Well, I think it's a catch 22, it's a good question isn't it? We've got the situation we've been running on debt, we've been getting growth through debt, and now we've got too much debt, so it's a little bit difficult to stimulate growth by creating more debt."

ENDS

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