Manuel António dos Santos (PSE). – (PT) Mr President, the current financial crisis, which in the short term will be economic and cannot fail to be social, perhaps also political, could have been anticipated because it was predictable. It is a shame that ultraliberal dogmatism and the economy of financial speculation, the so-called ‘economy of the devil’, have taken the upper hand over social concerns and the economy of entrepreneurial spirit and action, which is the only economy capable of generating wealth and serving the citizens.

Regulation has failed, as Commissioner Almunia stated. It has failed and must now be radically overhauled, after being punished. The crisis in the world’s financial system is structural, as Commissioner Almunia also stated. As a result, merely using the political instruments at our disposal today is not enough. The attitude of the European Central Bank, which is insisting on applying remedies that the current disease is rejecting, the blindly optimistic autism of certain members of the Ecofin Council, who just 15 days ago expressed surprised at the dimensions of the crisis, and the attitude of Commissioner McCreevy, who is proposing changing something so that everything stays the same, are unacceptable.

The Commission now has a responsibility to use all its instruments and to put pressure on the Member States to create new instruments. This responsibility particularly involves paying heed to the correct and ambitious recommendations made by the European Parliament following the Rasmussen report.