Left attacks brutal EU/IMF austerity in EP debate
Date
Sections
Criticizing the measures taken by the EU in response to the crisis in advance of tomorrow's Council Summit in Brussels, GUE/NGL President Lothar Bisky explained the key elements of the left's proposal to Commission President Barroso today in the European Parliament.
"Europe urgently needs a social-ecological investment program to overcome the crisis, decisive measures to break the power of financial markets and more economic democracy in the interests of wage earners" he said.
The GUE/NGL group supports protests against current EU policy and is calling for an EU-wide financial transactions tax, environmental taxes and a rigorous taxation of high incomes, property and inheritance to enable investment in ecological and social development.
Calling for a general strike, Spanish GUE/NGL MEP Willy Meyer also expressed his solidarity with workers. "The unions have already announced that in Spain there will be general strike on September 29, coinciding with a massive mobilization organized by the European Trade Union Confederation".
For Meyer at the root of the current economic crisis is "the problem of non-intervention in the economy. This prevents the construction of Europe and disables the cohesion and the existence of a European social model. The deregulated market is now threatening democracy itself" he concluded.
"Austerity is hitting workers and plunging our economies into recession, spreading like a virus across Europe from Ireland to Greece, Spain to Portugal, Germany, Italy, and across Eastern Europe, where the EU-IMF "holy alliance" is imposing the harshest, most damaging neoliberal economic programme yet seen" said Greek MEP Nikos Chountis.
"Why not tax banks to finance a social fund for pensioners, the unemployed affected by the crisis?" he asked, highlighting the fact that 2010 has been officially deemed "EU year against poverty and social exclusion".
GUE/NGL PRESS CONTACTS:
David Lundy + 32 485 50 58 12
Gianfranco Battistini + 32 475 64 66 28
Sonja Giese + 32 486 94 50 21
Gauche Unitaire Européenne / Gauche Verte Nordique
European United Left / Nordic Green Left