Sharon Bowles (ALDE). – Madam President, 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 ECB because he has paid heed to the discussions and reports in the Parliament and recognises our direction and determination.

The competitiveness pact and its evolution is a case in point. We already have a richer tapestry of ideas in our amendments to the economic governance package, so we will have little difficulty in moving into codecision to merge the outcomes of the positions that we take in Parliament and Council.

But we should not cherry-pick from the single market, nor continue to get it wrong. The single market is not about a fortress with a level playing field inside. It is about the external competitiveness that a large single market can generate, so it is intimately mixed with the recovery side of economic governance.

We also need a permanent financial stability mechanism capable of evolving over time, subject to governance and priorities. To the German people, convulsed with the ‘transfer union’ issue, I say ‘look at what accompanies the demands of your own government – recapitalisation of banks and purchase of sovereign debt in a secondary market’. Germany’s banks will take ten years to recognise their impaired assets from the crisis, and that includes sovereign debt. Germany’s banks will not meet new international rules for bank capital, so transfer to German banks should also be the issue on your lips. That is why you need the mechanism, like all the eurozone.

Finally, on interest rates, there is a balance that has to be struck between sustainability and moral hazard.

(The President cut off the speaker)