During this morning's Parliamentary debate on the Union's 2020 strategy, GUE/NGL President Lothar Bisky (Germany) was critical of the strategy saying "clearly it had not come up with solutions for people in the throes of crisis, quite the opposite. Instead, these are the same kind of policies that have contributed to this crisis", he said.

"What we are looking at here is a tightening of the Stability and Growth Pact and providing it with better sanctioning mechanisms. We're looking at cuts: cuts to pensions, people having to work longer, wage restraint and wage cuts when what we should be talking about are the needs of people."

"Economic Governance, the Annual Growth Report, the 2020 Strategy, the Stability Pact and the Competitiveness Pact all contain anti-social policies that my Parliamentary group will not support."

In addition he condemned the Union for "withdrawing into the politics of secrecy" with decisions being taken behind closed doors. "Nobody wants to go back to this way of doing business," Lothar Bisky concluded.

GUE/NGL PRESS CONTACTS:
Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20
David Lundy + 32 485 50 58 12
Inga Keilmann (DE) +32 493 60 10 23
Gianfranco Battistini + 32 475 64 66 28
www.guengl.eu
Gauche Unitaire Européenne/Nordic Green Left
European Parliamentary Group