Tackling the recession

Tackling the economic and financial crisis by a sustainable recovery

The economic and financial crisis is not over yet. And when it is, it does not mean that recovery will automatically start. Important measures need to be taken.

We must first determine what went wrong. The ALDE Group has taken the lead in the EU asking for the establishment of a temporary committee in the Parliament to assess and report back on the reason for the financial collapse.
But already now, two elements are clearly essential for recovery. First of all, we need a European Financial Supervisor. The lack of common supervision allowed the financial crisis to hit our continent very hard. In order to avoid a similar crisis in the near future, 'normal' products in the single market have to comply with stringent norms and are systematically tested in order to ensure that they conform to these norms. In the financial sector, none of these rules apply. There is little or no regulation, there is virtually no verification and both consumers and producers find themselves at risk. It is therefore essential that the financial markets within the Union are regulated and done so at an EU level applying EU determined norms.

Secondly, we need a bold European recovery strategy. We see Europe 2020, the new Lisbon Strategy as an opportunity. But prior to that we need to recognise the weakness of the Lisbon Strategy. With the old feeble "open coordination method", "peer pressure" and "best practices" we will never reach our goals. If we want the EU to be the most competitive economy in the world, we need an enforceable method and a coordinated economic governance with the European Commission in the driving seat.