Mr. Rasmussen was speaking after the Conservative dominated European Council issued a set of conclusions that focused on Labour Market Reforms, Fiscal Consolidation (cuts to public budgets) and so called ‘structural reform”.
Noting the decision to make the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) permanent, Mr. Rasmussen stated that this was ‘a start’ but that; “the opportunity to make the ESM adaptable was missed”. The Mechanism will not have the capacity to issue bonds on the secondary markets, nor the possibility of lowering interest rates for ‘crisis’ countries. PES experts noted that the only conditionality of real consequence in the Mechanism was, again, fiscal consolidation.
The PES President stated that the Conservative conclusions were; “yet another Charter for Austerity, which is guaranteed to provoke resistance from citizens fed up with continually having to make sacrifice after sacrifice. It is a never-ending story of Conservative mismanagement of this crisis”.
Mr. Rasmussen noted that, due to Socialist pressure, a reference to “explore and develop” the concept of a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) had been inserted. However he stressed that; “The FTT reference waters down the commitments made at the 11 March Eurozone meeting. What is really needed is a European Council commitment to launch a European FTT. Otherwise all European Citizens will see are vague promises and little action to target the Financial Services actors responsible for this crisis”.
PES Prime Ministers, and Deputy Prime Ministers pre-Council Statement
