Speeches

Mr President, I support a strong social responsibility for every single European citizen and our duty to increase well-being for everyone. A good economic policy is a prerequisite for this, and I dare to say that responsible and good economic policy is in fact the best social policy. We know that debt levels have risen beyond the necessary COVID-19 recovery in all Member States, especially in those where economic problems were already evident in the past. However, this is not a reason to lose the foundations of the Stability and Growth Pact, nor is it a reason not to deal with indebtedness. We need to achieve sustainable debt levels so that we can afford to continue to recover in a countercyclical manner, and so that we can afford climate and other investments for which Europe has a huge investment gap. Good public finance management can be modelled on the RRF process, and just as important as looking at debt levels is how in different sectors we direct our spending so that it produces better and more efficiently, and every sector in this regard can be an investment target but also a waste.