Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 16 November 2011 - Strasbourg

Economic governance

  Iliana Ivanova (PPE), in writing. – (BG) The most recent turmoil in Europe’s economic and financial environment showed once again that the efforts of individual countries are not sufficient to stabilise Europe’s financial markets. At the moment, we are not talking about a few problems with public debt, but are facing a systemic crisis which is having an impact on every citizen in the EU’s Member States. At this difficult time, Europe must be united more than ever and not give into the populist voices calling for the euro area to be disbanded. We can only tackle the challenges in the world around us if we are together. Europe’s institutions must strengthen their role as a unifying force and use the crisis as an opportunity to create a sound legal framework for economic governance.

I call on the European Commission to implement the economic governance package measures as soon as possible and to present other European instruments which will help financial stability in the EU. Member States which do not belong to the euro area must be involved on an equal footing with the other states in making decisions about the European Union’s future, and must not be isolated from the processes. This is the path Europe must pursue to avoid a two-speed Union, which will be detrimental to the European project in the long run.