‘This is hurting Greece’s chance to recover, and harming European jobs’

Speaking to a high-level European Commission conference on the Economic Crisis, the President of the Party of European Socialists (PES), Poul Nyrup Rasmussen stated that; “With regards to the crisis, now is time for Governments to understand the responsibilities and those who must take the lead are France and Germany”.

Mr. Rasmussen made his comments before an audience of 300 EU decision-makers, including Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, adding that; “The budgetary obsession with cutting public funding now, could risk losing 4.5 million jobs by 2014”.

The PES President emphasized that; “We need to be careful of the exit strategy. If we cut budgets, we will see that the ‘saving’ are not nearly as much as predicted”. In response to a question on how to find new sources of funding, Mr. Rasmussen said that; “We should introduce a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). It is time for fair burden sharing”.

The Statement from the PES leader also criticized the narrow application of the EU budgetary, “Growth and Stability Pact”, which he said was ‘too restrictive’. Using the example of the Greek debt crisis, he said that the European Union had the possibility through the existing EU Treaty, to create a mechanism for ‘fair borrowing rates’ without German taxpayers ‘having to pay a single Euro’.

For more information please contact Brian Synnott (PES media adviser) at +32 474 98 96 75 or brian.synnott(at)pes.org