European Summit: "Progress but not final decisions", says Schulz (S&D)

27 October 2011

The decision of the European Summit, which finished early this morning, offered "progress but not complete solutions to the crisis", declared Martin Schulz, the president of the Socialist and Democrat Group in the European Parliament.

During a debate in the Parliament today in Strasbourg, he lamented the slow response to the crisis from the EU leaders. "If these decisions had been taken a year ago, we wouldn't be in this position today", he argued.

"The social imbalances that we have in Europe continue."

"I would have liked us to talk about tax evasion and to agree to fight this problem with all possible means", he added.

"The heads of state and government who took these decisions worth hundreds of billions of euros to stabilise the banks all object when we call for a small increase in the Globalisation Adjustment Funds for social projects. That's the reality today."

As for the possibility of Treaty changes suggested by the Council, Schulz demanded full involvement for the Parliament and its president. "The European Parliament is the basis of European democracy. Without the Parliament, there can be no Treaty changes. The Treaty of Lisbon gave us important rights and we will use these rights", he warned.

Press release


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