04 June 2013

Steinbrück calls for Marshall Plan against euro crisis; new alliance between Germany, France and Poland

In a speech laying out his foreign policy, Peer Steinbrück, leader of Germany's centre-left SPD, called for "a form of Marshall Plan" for Southern European countries, in order to re-consolidate a post-crisis Europe.

Translated from the German

Handelsblatt reports that in a speech entitled "World in Transition - Guidelines Social Democratic Foreign and Security Policy", Steinbrück called for "a form of Marshall Plan" for Europe. More specifically, the SPD frontman envisaged a European investment and construction fund for the promotion of sustainable and viable growth. 

Steinbrück was confident that this could be realised without additional expense, and could be partly financed by the revenues from the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) and the EU’s structural fund.

Elsewhere, the Frankfurter Allemeine Zeitung reported that Steinbrück had declined a role of leadership for Germany in the EU and had called instead for an even closer alliance with France and Poland.

Steinbrück also declared that he was against deeper eurozone integration. This was wrong in view of the non-euro countries, such as Poland, Great Britain, Sweden and Denmark. He argued that in various policy fields, interest groups containing several Member States could proceed with integration steps on a case by case basis. 

He further demanded that Britain should decide whether it wanted to bind itself "irrevocably" and permanently to the European continent.