Speaking from Poland today while campaigning alongside SLD Leader Grzegorz Napieralski ahead of the Polish general elections in October, President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said: “Together with all the leaders of our political family, I have been pushing for years for an EU FTT as an essential part of a coordinated comprehensive economic plan that includes Eurobonds as well as an economic strategy for jobs and clear regulation of financial markets and credit rating agencies.”
President Rasmussen further stated that: “The commission now needs to be courageous and steadfast. It cannot allow an FTT proposal with loopholes that the speculators could drive the financial train through. There should be one rate for one tax.”
“The time for half-measures is over”, he added. “The EU must adopt not just a loophole-free FTT but the whole PES economic recovery platform.”
In contradiction with this announcement by the European Commission, the conservative majority of the European Parliament has just adopted today the so-called “governance package” a biased reform of the Stability and Growth pact towards more austerity, against the opposition of socialists and social-democratic MEPs.
As commentators have pointed out, the continuation of conservatives “grudging incrementalism” put Europe at great risk. The result of recent elections in Denmark and France moreover demonstrates that the conservative politics of austerity-only is not supported by Europeans.
“People in Europe are fed up with austerity. They can see that the last three years have been an 'era of false starts'. This can and must be changed” concluded President Rasmussen.
