EP President Schulz speaks to EU summit about reconciling austerity and growth

Attending an EU summit for the first time as EP President, Martin Schulz Monday told leaders that the European Parliament must be involved in decisions on resolving the euro crisis. He also warned that austerity measures alone are not sufficient to solve Europe's problems but must be accompanied by investment in growth and jobs.

"It is time to focus on the real issues. It is time to talk about how we are going to lead Europe out of the crisis," he said, Schulz said, commenting on the ongoing debate about the legal nature of the proposed fiscal pact to stabilise indebted euro zone members.

FTT, eurobonds, EU Rating agency, growth initiative

A genuine economic and financial union is needed, Schulz said, outlining parliament's core demands. "We want a financial transaction tax"  (FTT) that could generate revenue of roughly €200 billion in the EU a year. "We want eurobonds" to ease the debt crisis and stabilise the banking system, he added and "we want a European rating agency" to break the US monopoly and avoid conflicts of interests.  

Finally, Schulz said, "we want a European growth initiative" that would use the billions of euros in the EU-budget not taken up by member states. Instead of concentrating on growth and jobs, many governments are still focusing on budgetary discipline only, he said.

Avoid EU division

He called on leaders to work together to counter any threat of division within the EU. "We cannot allow the EU to break up, or the principle of a multi-speed Europe to become entrenched. Alone we are weak, together we are strong!"

Schulz went on to say that the fiscal union must be subject to scrutiny by the EP and national parliaments and said all 26 countries who sign up to the pact should be allowed to take part in summits, whether they are members of the eurozone or not. In addition the EP "must be represented at all eurozone and EU summits", he said.