“le plat pays”

Sunday February 22, the European leaders of the G-20 (Germany, France, England, Italy and Spain, plus the presidents of time the European Union, the Euro and the EC) met in Berlin.

They agreed on 7 points to be presented as the compilation of a common position at the next summit of the G-20 which will take place on 2nd of April in London.

It is fair to say that there are not too many new features. In fact, I would say that these points are what any citizen minimally informed would propose. Then, what is the news? The proposal which is made in a coordinated manner among all countries comprising the European Union (EU), which intends to enlarge to all members of the G-20.

Which are the 7 points?
1 - Provide more capacity to the International Monetary Fund and the Stability Financial Fund in order to monitor compliance with the global action plan adopted last November at the Washington Summit.
2 - The creation of a governing body that controls the risk financial products and rating agencies for risk, which have shown to be non operatives.
3 - The creation of a mechanism of sanctions against tax and legal realities that do not work colleague to provide the information they require.
4 - to urge financial institutions to take advantage of periods of economic boom to create the “capital cushions”, measures to help in difficult times.
5 - The commitment to a social market economy, of clear resonances and Keynesian social democrats.
6 - Take action to avoid distortion of competition, avoiding the protectionist measures and promote the Doha Round in the WTO.
7 - Provide more resources to the IMF to provide the necessary aid for members who need it, quickly and flexibly.

If at the next meeting on April 2, the G-20 in London takes this agreement, we will have taken an important step towards tackling the global crisis we are experiencing.

Probably it will not be appropriate to talk about a change of a global governance model, but in fact that is what we are talking about.

Truly, the fact is that in this unleashing of “leave everything in the hands of the market”, we have all almost fallen. Not when presenting proposals, but very often when it comes to governing. It seemed that invest 3 euros and winning 300 in a month was a normal thing and that speculation in housing was something that would not ever end. And we didn’t realize that it was possible due to the increase of inequalities between those who had and those who had less.

Yes, governments do well in trying to save the system, but not at any price. When we say that the problem is the crisis of confidence, that’s the minimum that you might expect! Who do we have to trust? To those banks which give mortgages to poor guarantees?

And actually we even hear some voices shouting that for combating the crisis, we need more deregulation. Now, we have to make more “flexible” salaries and dismisses. What do they propose to us? Why more flexibility to dismisses in our country, which is one of the most “flexible” in the EU?
How will be recovered the purchasing power if workers are even more insecure in their employment contracts? How will they recover confidence in debt, with less security in their contracts or in their salaries?
If it were not so serious, it would seem a bad joke.
The differences which were widening every day between those who have and those who have less is the background of this global crisis. We must say that it is enough; we must say that not everything is acceptable.
We said that another world was possible when the Iraq war took place. Today, we reiterate, not only thinking about a better world in peace, but in a world governed by men and women that believe that the ‘use only once’ is a stupid model, but acting with responsibility is intelligent. As a result, intelligence acts.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 9:33 pm and is filed under General, European Politics, International Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.