Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr President of the Commission, although I very much welcome today's debate, I would like to put it on record that I see the summons to you, Mr President of the Commission, to come to Parliament today, as amounting to a blue letter in response to your latest utterances on the Stability and Growth Pact. A glance at history shows us that every currency union lacking the backup of political union failed. The EU is not yet a political union, and so the Stability and Growth Pact is what might be termed a stopgap, an imaginary European Finance Minister. Demolish it, and you imperil monetary union. The Stability and Growth Pact is not stupid, but casting doubt upon it is irresponsible and indeed negligent. The Stability and Growth Pact is an effective tool to counteract budgetary folly, a workable substitute for the common EU budgetary policy that, for the foreseeable future, does not exist. The Stability and Growth Pact is neither complicated nor rigid; it is flexible and simple enough, with its rule of no new debts in good times and up to 3% of GDP room to manoeuvre in bad ones. Most of our States abide by the Stability and Growth Pact. Why, I wonder, are the majority in Europe taken to be the stupid ones, just because a few have problems and either have not done their homework or do not want to do it? As they say, people who do not take themselves seriously are not taken seriously by others. What are people, the public and the candidate countries to be guided by and be able to hold fast to, if the Commission, as guardian of the Treaties, and Member States, declare constitutional principles to be optional and sacrifice them to convenience and to the opportunism entailed in making policy on a day-to-day basis. Running up debts may be opportune in the short term, but, in the long term, the debt trap jeopardises growth and employment, stability and social cohesion. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to use this minute and this debate to express gratitude and congratulations to the Board of the ECB and its President, Wim Duisenberg for their steady hand and for being an anchor of stability. I would, though also like to tell the President of the European Central Bank that, when rain comes pouring in through the roof of a house, or water breaks into a ship, the caretaker or the captain must not go. I beg Mr Duisenberg to call off the early retirement he has already announced, and to stay put. I want to spare us a debate at the present time as to whether a country that openly defies the Stability and Growth Pact has any sort of moral right to propose a candidate as his successor. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr President, you said on Radio Europe 1, and repeated today, that you were calling for a central institution to coordinate the eurozone countries' economic policies. I do not believe that we need a new institution. We have one – the Commission! Your task is to strengthen it rather than weaken it. Your task is to implement the Treaty rather than to undermine it, and use enhanced coordination to make the objectives realities. Ladies and gentlemen, we need more trust and less troublemaking. My group is therefore showing the yellow card to all those who cast doubt upon the Stability and Growth Pact. If anyone misunderstands that, we will have to show them the red one! (Applause) IN THE CHAIR: MR PUERTAVice-President

Political group: PPE-DE