unimelb-nlp/MultiEup-v2 huggingface dataset:
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Enikő Győri
Political group: NI
Country: Luxembourg
Language: HU

Elnök Úr! Az élet valóban felülírta a gazdasági kormányzásról a szabályainkat. Ugyanakkor ezeket az új javaslatokat annak a próbának is alá kell vetni, megteremtik-e a növekedés és a felelős gazdálkodás egyensúlyát, egyszerűsödik-e minden, és egyenlő mércével fognak-e mérni minden tagállamot. Azt kell mondjam, e téren nem vagyok nyugodt.  Először is, a költségvetés egyensúlyának helyreállításában hiszek, nem pedig az országok és az Unió eladósodásában. Az adósságcélérték megszüntetésével bizonytalan alapokon ítélhet majd meg a Bizottság egyes tagállamokat. Ez rontja a kiszámíthatóságot és veszélyezteti az egyenlő elbánás elvét.  Másodszor, nem egyértelmű, hogy a Bizottság milyen tényezők mentén tehet javaslatot túlzottdeficit-eljárás megindítására, garanciák kellenének, hogy a Bizottság ne élhessen vissza diszkrecionális jogával.  Harmadszor, a középtávú fiskális strukturális tervek kiszámíthatóság szempontjából jók, de a jelenlegi kihívásos környezetben a fiskális politika számára rugalmasság kellene, hogy szükség esetén pufferként működhessenek a gazdaság más szektorainak zavara esetén.  Negyedszer, az Európai Szemeszter túlterhelése új területekkel vitákhoz és fókuszvesztéshez vezet.  Végezetül, a független fiskális intézmények hatásköre igen eltérő. Nem gondolom, hogy fontos az uniós szintű szabályozás. Erre az öt dilemmára választ kell találni, mert csak így lesz egyensúly a hiteles, kiszámítható adósságcsökkentés és a kihívások kezeléséhez szükséges költségvetési rugalmasság között.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Siegfried Mureşan
Political group: PPE
Country: Germany
Language: EN

Mr President, dear colleagues, the debate that we are having today is a very fundamental debate for the European Union. It is not a technical debate. Debates about fiscal rules and about public budgets in Europe are debates about and decisions about people’s money. Our obligation is to manage people’s money with great care, to make sure that the next generations have more opportunities than the previous generations. This is why we need to get the objective of this fundamental debate right.  The objective is not to make more depth in Europe. The objective is to allow our economies to grow, to generate jobs and to generate wealth while we keep debt low in Europe. Because we have all seen that too high levels of debt are a risk. They are a vulnerability for our economies, particularly in times of crisis. This is why we as EPP Group say very clearly our economies need to grow faster than our debt grows, and in order to allow our economies to grow, reforms are important, competitiveness is important.  And yes, while we recognise that different countries are in different situations and they have different paths towards debt sustainability, the overall objective needs to be for a debt to be low because only with low debt we can help in times of crisis. We could at the beginning of COVID create the largest package of economic support because still we had space of manoeuvre in Europe and we need to we need to manage this with great care.  We as EPP Group ask for clear rules, predictability, no exemptions, agreements between the Commission and Member States and these be respected.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Irene Tinagli
Political group: S-D
Country: Slovenia
Language: EN

Mr President, a good economic governance must have two characteristics – ambition and credibility – and credibility does not rhyme necessarily with the severity as many claim. Credibility is measured by the economic, social and political sustainability of those rules. And if rules are not sustainable over time, governance is not credible. So the old governance was perhaps ambitious, but not particularly credible – it hasn’t proved that over time. The review launched by the Commission shall set the right balance between ambition and credibility. The proposals are already moving in the right direction, but frankly, I believe that something more needs to be done to guarantee an adequate level of public investment, because these investments are key to growth in private investments as well, and these will ensure the digital, environmental and social transition challenges that we have ahead of us and this is what really we need to do to meet our citizens’ expectations.  So, more investments today means more growth, more jobs for tomorrow and in the end, that’s what we are called to deliver. This is what citizens expect from us. This is how we can be credible.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Eva Maria Poptcheva
Political group: Renew
Language: EN

Mr President, Minister Roswall, Vice—President Šefčovič, dear colleagues, the reform of the EU fiscal rules is not really about reducing public debt, implementing structural reforms or spurring strategic investment. The reform of the fiscal rules is about building trust – trust between Dutch and Spaniards, between Germans and Italians, Polish and French, because trust is what constitutes the pillars of the Union. During the financial crisis, we finally understood that the EU economic governance framework was not up to the challenge. But after the reforms undergone during the 2010s, we still don’t have a set of fiscal rules that countries respect and follow. Now we have the opportunity to create a framework that builds solid and enduring trust between European partners, ensures the sustainability of our public finances and enables the European Union to properly respond to our future challenges. We can achieve these three things by increasing national ownership of the fiscal plans while also reinforcing national responsibility. It is the balance between flexibility and responsibility that builds trust. And to paraphrase Jean Monnet on today’s Europe Day, that trust will bring together both cooperation between Member States and the Union between its peoples.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Rasmus Andresen
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Germany
Language: DE

Herr Präsident! „Das Risiko ist, dass wir den Blick für die großen Zusammenhänge verlieren.“ Mit diesen Worten kommentierte der Ökonom Sander Tordoir die Vorschläge zum Stabilitäts- und Wachstumspakt. Bei der Reform der EU-Schuldenregeln geht es nämlich nicht einfach nur um die Frage, wie viel Kredite die EU-Staaten aufnehmen dürfen. Die EU befindet sich in einer wirtschaftlich angespannten Lage. Die soziale Spaltung nimmt zu, und viele Staaten haben ihre Infrastruktur auf Verschleiß gefahren. Wenn die Armut steigt, brauchen wir mehr Investitionen in soziale Infrastruktur. Gerade in der Corona-Pandemie haben wir doch alle gesehen, welche harten Folgen es haben kann, wenn wir nicht ausreichend in unser Gesundheitssystem investieren. Der Ausbau von erneuerbaren Energien, bessere und schnellere europäische Bahnverbindungen, ein sozial ausgewogener Umbau unserer Industrien. Wenn wir die europäischen Klimaziele erreichen wollen, müssen wir jährlich knapp 500 Milliarden Euro in den grünen Umbau investieren. Laut einer Studie der New Economics Foundation wird die Hälfte der EU-Mitgliedstaaten durch das vorgeschlagene Gesetz nicht ausreichend die Möglichkeit haben, in den grünen Umbau zu investieren. Das sind die großen Zusammenhänge, über die wir auch heute hier reden. Auf einem toten Planeten gibt es keine Schulden. Es ist keine generationengerechte Finanzpolitik, wenn durch strikte Haushaltsregeln europaweit auf Verschleiß gefahren wird und die Klimakrise unseren Planeten zerstört. Deshalb brauchen wir einen Stabilitätspakt, der ökonomisch, sozial und ökologisch stabil ist. Und um ganz offen zu sein: Der Vorschlag der EU-Kommission ist dafür nicht stark genug. Sie gehen erste kleine Schritte, aber wir Grüne werden dafür kämpfen, dass wir gemeinsam den ganzen Weg gehen.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Michiel Hoogeveen
Political group: ECR
Country: Sweden
Language: NL

Voorzitter, afspraak is afspraak. Eind jaren negentig maakten de lidstaten onder het stabiliteits- en groeipact de regels voor gezonde overheidsfinanciën. De Europese Commissie wil deze regels nu versoepelen. Zij wil meer uitgaven voor klimaat, een meer flexibele schuldaflossing en schrapt de boetes bij overtredingen. De Duitse minister van Financiën, Christian Lindner, gooide een bom onder het voorstel en daar heeft hij vol-ko-men gelijk in. Het Nederlandse kabinet zou hem daarin moeten steunen, maar minister Kaag duikt weg en noemde zelfs de uitspraken van haar Duitse collega “zorgwekkend”. Voorzitter, gezonde overheidsfinanciën zijn een voorwaarde voor duurzame economische groei. Nederlanders weten wat ervoor nodig is om aan de strenge voorwaarden van de Europese begrotingsregels te voldoen. En nu gaat de commissaris aan de Nederlanders vertellen dat de spelregels veranderen, dat al onze hervormingen en bezuinigingen wel wat soepeler hadden gekund? Met de voorgestelde regels wordt de mier bestraft en de krekel beloond. Hoelang accepteren coalitiepartijen VVD en CDA dit nog? Een Nederlandse regering mag hier nooit mee akkoord gaan!
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Gunnar Beck
Political group: ID
Country: Germany
Language: DE

Herr Präsident! Als sich die EU eine gemeinsame Währung gab, hatte sie zwei Optionen: entweder eine Weichwährung mit hoher Inflation und einer Zentralbank, die Geld einfach druckt, um Exportindustrie wettbewerbsfähig zu halten und hochverschuldete Mitgliedstaaten vor dem Bankrott zu bewahren, oder eine Hartwährung nach Vorbild der D-Mark mit niedriger Inflation und einer Zentralbank, die fest hinter Sparern und Rentnern steht und die Regierung zu umsichtiger Fiskalpolitik zwingt. Mit der Annahme der Maastricht-Regeln und einem Inflationsziel von unter 2 % schien die Wahl damals klar. Doch 30 Jahre nach Maastricht und nach drei EZB-Präsidenten aus Mittelmeerstaaten haben wir zweistellige Inflationsraten, klamme Banken und Rekordverschuldung. Fast jeder Staat missachtet die Maastricht-Regeln. Alle in Europa wollten eine deutsche Währung, aber niemand wollte deutsche Haushaltsführung. Nachdem Draghi den Euro erfolgreich lirafiziert hatte, fordern Kommission und EZB, die strengen Haushaltsregeln nun aufzugeben. Minister Lindner ist im Rat völlig isoliert. Die Rolle des neuen Deutschland in der neuen EU dürfte klar sein:
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Manon Aubry
Political group: The Left
Country: France
Language: FR

Monsieur le Président, Monsieur le Commissaire, votre disque est rayé. Au nom de la dette et du déficit, combien de fonctionnaires voulez-vous licencier? Jusqu’à quel âge faudra-t-il travailler? Combien de lits d’hôpitaux voulez-vous encore fermer? En vérité, aucun sacrifice ne sera jamais suffisant pour satisfaire votre obsession de la dette. Votre disque est rayé. Vous l’aviez vous-même reconnu, d’ailleurs, en suspendant vos règles budgétaires et en proposant leur révision. Mais je vous imagine vous dire: «Eurêka! Et si nous proposions à peu près les mêmes règles que celles qui nous ont précipités droit dans le mur?» Chassez l’austérité, elle revient au galop. Votre disque est rayé. Nous vous parlons de services publics et de dignité des gens. Vous nous répondez coupes budgétaires et réformes structurelles. Derrière les chiffres, vos austères divisions et soustractions, il n’y a que des abstractions, mais une douloureuse réalité pour des millions de gens qui vont subir une baisse de leur allocation chômage, faire la queue plus longtemps aux urgences déjà débordées, voir leur école ou la maternité fermer. Le tout sans aucun débat démocratique sur qui doit payer. Parce que, étrangement, vous ne demandez jamais aux États d’augmenter les impôts des milliardaires ou des grandes multinationales pour réduire la dette. Non. C’est toujours aux pauvres de payer l’addition. Monsieur le Commissaire, votre disque est rayé et il nous rappelle bien trop l’orchestre du Titanic qui continue de jouer alors que le bateau est en train de couler.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Luděk Niedermayer
Political group: PPE
Country: Slovenia
Language: EN

Mr President, some countries, in budget policy, even under current complicated rules, are doing well; some are not. Without any doubt, their people will pay the price because the consolidation of excessive debt is expensive. Fiscal rules can easily spill over and can affect the economy of all the EU. So, as a consequence, we should avoid countries getting into fiscal crisis. The Commission proposal is overdue but, we should say, better late than never. By chance, it is consistent with the EPP view that was expressed in the report that was approved by a big majority of the plenary. The expenditure rule is more straightforward and it provides guidance even in the short run. And this is very, very important. I guess we should put this proposal quickly into life without creating loopholes by unnecessary exemptions. The priority expenditures of the governments must be financed first and not last, and we should consider if some EU priorities should not be financed directly through the EU budget. This House has clearly agreed that we should not leave the climate debt to be paid by our kids. The same must be true for the debt created or expressed by money through bad fiscal policy because this is how responsible politics should work.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Jonás Fernández
Political group: S-D
Country: Ireland
Language: ES

Señor presidente, señor vicepresidente de la Comisión, señora presidenta en ejercicio del Consejo, se han repasado ya en estos minutos de debate algunos de los problemas de las actuales reglas fiscales, y yo creo que hay un cierto consenso en reconocer que, ante esos problemas, necesitamos reglas nuevas, aunque, ciertamente, el debate sobre las nuevas reglas queda pendiente para los próximos meses. Sin embargo, hay un problema de las actuales reglas que no resuelve la propuesta de la Comisión y que creo que es necesario mencionar en la sede del Parlamento Europeo, en la sede de la soberanía europea, y es que las actuales reglas y las posiblemente futuras están pensadas para aplicarse en cada uno de los Estados sin una reflexión sobre el efecto conjunto de la política fiscal —como digo— en el conjunto de la economía de la Unión Europea y fundamentalmente en la zona del euro. Tenemos una política monetaria y en la zona del euro tenemos diecinueve políticas fiscales distintas. Y estas políticas fiscales nacionales seguirán siendo distintas con las futuras reglas. Y necesitamos internalizar el efecto del conjunto de las políticas nacionales y lograr que la zona del euro tenga una política fiscal consolidada acorde al ciclo.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Billy Kelleher
Political group: Renew
Country: Denmark
Language: EN

Mr President, I welcome the economic governance rules published by the Commission and I welcome the debate that will happen over the next period of time. I have been calling for some time for us to be flexible in our approach around the issue of unwinding from the emergency support packages that were put in place during the financial crisis and then the COVID crisis itself. We simply have to accept that we are not just a monetary union and a trading bloc; we are also a Union of people. And we need to ensure that when we are trying to bring ourselves back to fiscal discipline, that we do it in a way that doesn’t harm economies and cause social upheaval and damage to employment opportunities for people. That has happened previously in some countries during the financial credit crisis, so we have to be conscious that when we are bringing ourselves back in to fiscal discipline, that we observe the fact that we need to be country-specific in many areas to get to the 3% budget deficit and the 60% borrowing. Otherwise, we will cause significant harm and damage to the political union as well as to people’s lives across Member States. And we would undermine the concept of solidarity, which is something that we should all be supporting in this particular Parliament around more vulnerable countries at the moment because of fiscal challenges.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Sara Matthieu
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: France
Language: EN

Mr President, colleagues, for the longest time, Europe stood for one word: ‘austerity’. And as we will have Chancellor Scholz here later with us this morning, I truly have to say that I hope that we don’t return to the fetish of the ‘ Colleagues, when in the past our alarms went off because of debt creation, we now need a real social golden rule. To go back to austerity politics in the middle of a cost of living crisis – that is a social bomb. It will drive people straight into the arms of the extreme right. We have to make a choice here: if Member States are unwilling to create the needed EU funding for social and green investments, well then the national budgets need to be able to fill the gap.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Dorien Rookmaker
Political group: ECR
Country: Netherlands
Language: NL

Voorzitter, commissaris, sinds 1997 kent de EU het SGP. Dit zijn begrotingsregels die ervoor moeten zorgen dat de landen van de EU niet te veel geld uitgeven en niet te veel schulden maken. Dat is belangrijk. Het huishoudboekje moet op orde zijn. Te veel lidstaten geven te veel geld uit en maken te veel schulden. En te veel is nooit goed. Nieuwe regels, zoals de Commissie nu voorstelt, zullen daar – vrees ik – niets aan veranderen. Er zullen altijd weer situaties zijn die het voor politici verleidelijk maken om toch weer extra te lenen en nog meer geld uit te geven. Bovendien blijft dit onverantwoordelijke gedrag van ambtenaren en politici zonder enige consequenties. De EU legt banken en bedrijven wetten en regels op, maar de EU zelf heeft maling aan regels. En dus blijft het stabiliteits- en groeipact, zoals het SGP voluit heet, een papieren tijger.  De enige manier om de schulden aan te pakken: maak de verantwoordelijke regeringsleiders persoonlijk aansprakelijk.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Antonio Maria Rinaldi
Political group: ID
Country: Italy
Language: IT

Signor Presidente, signor Commissario, onorevoli colleghi, in un minuto posso solamente fare una riflessione sulla riforma del patto di stabilità e crescita. Nella riforma la Commissione avrà poteri enormi nella determinazione delle politiche economiche dei governi nazionali, molto superiori al precedente patto, non coinvolgendo neanche questo Parlamento che, ricordo, è eletto democraticamente a suffragio universale, come lo sono i rispettivi parlamenti di ognuno dei 27 Paesi dell'Unione. Ne discende che nei governi graditi alla Commissione le nuove norme si interpreteranno, mentre agli altri si applicheranno in modo rigido. Non saranno più i cittadini a decidere con il voto, ma i burocrati non eletti che hanno sempre dimostrato di essere completamente disconnessi dalla realtà, gli stessi dell'incomprensibile decisione di non scorporare dal calcolo del debito pubblico i prestiti del NextGenerationEU. Ribadisco con fermezza che la sovranità appartiene al popolo e chi pensa solo minimamente a sostituirsi a esso è destinato miseramente a fallire. Poi ho sentito prima l'affermazione che l'euro è diventato come la lira; vorrei ricordare che nel 1991 con la lira l'Italia era la quarta potenza industriale al mondo. Il problema è che bisogna saperle fare le cose, non con una banca centrale non in grado.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Francesca Donato
Political group: NI
Country: France
Language: IT

Signor Presidente, onorevoli colleghi, signor vicepresidente Šefčovič, oggi devo farle una domanda: su quali fondamenti di scienza macroeconomica si basano i parametri del 60 % del debito sul PIL del 3 % del deficit, che ancora non si vogliono né rimuovere né modificare? Perché, vede, io cerco questa risposta da anni, ma non riesco a trovarla, visto che lo studio dei due professori di Oxford che sostennero il tetto del 60 % del debito sul PIL si è rivelato del tutto sbagliato. Da anni si parla di riforma del patto di stabilità e ci si aspettava che si intervenisse sul suo principale problema, cioè le soglie, specialmente dopo che il patto ha dovuto essere sospeso nella pandemia COVID-19 proprio perché non erano soglie sostenibili. Invece ci ritroviamo, ancora, con un sistema di vincoli infondati e rafforzati che costringerà l'Italia a tagliare tra gli 8 e 15 miliardi di euro l'anno di spesa e a fare riforme e investimenti decisi a Bruxelles, che lasciano fuori opere cruciali per il rilancio del Paese ed eroderanno la spesa corrente per welfare e manutenzione di infrastrutture essenziali. Non è questa la ricetta per la ripresa, né per la stabilità sociale di un'Europa che non vuole lasciare nessuno indietro.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil
Political group: PPE
Country: Cyprus
Language: ES

Señor presidente, superados los tiempos convulsos que hemos vivido hay que volver a la normalidad. Pero normalidad no significa volver sin más al mundo de ayer, que diría Stefan Zweig, supone aprender de las lecciones de la historia y corregir lo que no ha funcionado. El nuevo marco fiscal mantiene los límites establecidos en Maastricht, y así debe ser, pero establece tres novedades. La primera, establecer sendas fiscales individualizadas para cada país teniendo en cuenta la situación de sus finanzas. La segunda, prestar más atención al crecimiento. Y la tercera, adherirse al medio plazo mucho más que al corto plazo. Pero flexibilidad no quiere decir ni discrecionalidad ni arbitrariedad. La flexibilidad exige un compromiso político firme, una gran responsabilidad y un mantenimiento de las sanciones, como el apartamiento de los Fondos Estructurales. Mi país, España, entró en la pandemia en una situación complicada. Hubo un dramaturgo que hablaba del santo temor al déficit. Eso se fue perdiendo y nuestra deuda pública y nuestro déficit se han disparado. Es necesario hacer ajustes atendiendo al gasto y no a los ingresos para no perjudicar el crecimiento.
Debate: Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Agnes Jongerius
Political group: S-D
Country: Poland
Language: EN

Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear Minister, we have to avoid making the same mistakes as in the past. Austerity, an old-school, outdated, neoliberal narrative on economic governance is not what we need. The current proposed reform will not provide the necessary leeway for increasing public investment and enhancing social policies. We need an exclusion of the investment in social protection systems from the deficit calculation, because we need to learn the lessons from the past and re-establish the positive link between public expenditure and economic growth as a way to regain economic sovereignty and fiscal sustainability, while preparing the future for the next generations. Ensuring social convergence and quality job creation is the EU’s top political priority.