Mr. Speaker,
Ladies and gentlemen MPs,
In what is practically a "fait accompli" situation — with the population alienated from what is on the agenda here today, and in a debate which seems more like a formal ceremony, with the PS and the PSD [Socialist and Social-Democratic Parties] each attempting to win a "who contributed most toward Portugal's entry into the Euro-club" competition, and with the PP [People's Party] going back on its word — the Assembly of the Republic [parliament] is preparing to, almost subreptitiously, throw a few shovelfuls of earth on coffin of the Escudo and of national monetary policy, and without any misgivings adopt the Amsterdam Treaty.
Since this "session" was thus defined in advance, and since we were allotted so little time, we are not going to recall here that those who were against consulting the Portuguese people on the major qualitative leap that was the Maastricht Treaty, were the same ones as those who cooked up a shameful revision of the Constitution to make it impossible to hold a referendum on any matter of substance concerning European construction (for example, the single currency and the stability pact), and merely opened the door to a pseudo-referendum on "European Issues". Nor are we going to recall here that those two parties spent over half a year solemnly promising that the Amsterdam Treaty would only be debated in the Assembly of the Republic after the people had expressed a majority opinion in that so-called nation-wide referendum, but never said what would happen if there was a "No" victory!
Nor are we going to waste any time today on the fact that that same secrecy was used, and that this Assembly was likewise kept in the dark on the negotiations about the now-frozen Multilateral Agreement on Investments — the notorious MAI and the "package" negotiated in 18 May by Tony Blair, Commissioner Leon Brittan and Madeleine Albright with respect to a Transatlantic Economic Partnership, that is, the USA-EU agreement...
Nor are we going to refer to the poor and fragile economies of Britain, Denmark and Sweden which, unlike Portugal, are not among the "Euro
front runners"...
But we do want — at this moment when the PS and PSD are getting ready to adopt the new Amsterdam Treaty — to point out two issues:
The first is that this Treaty — with its markedly neo-liberal and monetarist clauses and its covertly but effectively federalist scheme — is being adopted at a time when there is a serious situation in Portugal's agriculture, fisheries and major branches and sub-branches of industry, with a growing domination by foreign capital and a worrying "slippage" in the balance of trade and balance of current transactions. It is being adopted at a time when even the economic growth that there has been may be in jeopardy because — contrary to what has been said (none of the EU countries that stayed out of the Euro club suffered the consequences of the crisis to a greater or to a lesser extent than the others), neither the Euro nor Europe have protected us, nor will they protect us if the "financial crisis" continues to snowball.
The second is that within this framework, in which our situation with respect to other countries is one of great fragility and vulnerability — which will tend to increase with the liberalisation of trade between the EU and the rest of the World, and with the EU's eastward extension — what is needed is a new direction for European integration.
Our stand — critical of the forced march toward the Euro and of the direction imposed on European integration — is a left-wing contribution (within the framework of integration) toward the debate we deem necessary and urgent, on the European Union's future. It is the stand of those who have always sought to uphold the national interest and enhance Portugal's negotiating position, a fact that has been publically admitted by both the [previous PM] Cavaco Silva's government and the current PS government.
And it is also the stand of those who think that losing our own currency and the possibility of using the exchange rate, make us much more vulnerable in reacting to external effects, leading to loss of competitiveness. We also think that our premature Euro membership is even more complex, fragile and dangerous in a globalised economy. In fact, the Escudo to Euro exchange rate that has been set has already meant a new revaluation of our currency. And the tendency toward an expensive euro with respect to the dollar and the yen will affect German exports and Portuguese exports differently... and this will have effects on employment and on the productive tissue.
Having said this, we also want to say that we are not among those who, ignoring everything they have said in the past, now merely say — "AD [the embryonic right/wing PSD-PP coalition] oblige" — that "today the euro is the reality" and that it is just because they were "critical of the process in the past" that they cannot sound triumphalistic today.
That is why we consider that internationally Portugal should today add its voice to that of those who stand for an urgent reform of the international monetary system and who say that, within the framework of the European Union we should take advantage of the three-year transition period to the euro as the de facto currency to monitor the consequences and take the measures required by the national interest, seeking at the same time to change the direction of integration, along the lines of the following examples:
1- Re-negotiating the "stability pact" and changing its logic, turning it into an employment and true economic convergence pact; modifying the European Central Bank's role and scope, because this institution with exorbitant powers cannot be allowed to override the choices made by national governments and parliaments.
2- Implementing the principle of social and economic cohesion, which implies:
a) gradually levelling upward the social gains made in the various European countries, in the struggle against unemployment and casual labour, in the reduction of working hours without loss of rights or pay;
b) taxing speculative capital movements and financial transactions (Tobin tax);
c) not reducing structural funds for the countries with weaker economies, as well as by creating mechanisms, particularly by financing the union so as to compensate the countries (such as ours) which remain exposed to external blows against their economies' competitiveness generally or against important export sectors.
Our case also requires a special status for the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, within the framework of an overall negotiation on funds, as well as a common agricultural policy reform that will take into account the specificity of our agriculture.
3- In the struggle for more democracy, attacking the so-called democracy deficits, favouring mechanisms of greater participation for National Parliaments, ensuring a decentralisation-leaning interpretation of the subsidiarity principle, drawing citizens closer to decision-making processes; increasing the European Parliament's powers, with a qualitative reduction in the Commission's prerogatives; maintaining the possibility of resorting to the veto in the Council whenever a country's national interest is in jeopardy.
4- In measures that give substance to respect for, and enhance the value of, national cultures and mutual dialogue and beneficial exchange; to upholding ecological balances; to building a Europe of solidarity, cooperation and peace based on collective security entrusted not to NATO but to an operational and updated OSCE.
These are some of the lines along which we propose a new direction for a "European construction"; on a progressive realignment that will reject neo-liberal fundamentalism, jingoistic and xenophobic conceptions, that will not accept the growth of regional and social inequalities as an "unavoidable fact of life", and that will feel indignant before the poverty and unemployment of millions that has been wrought by this "construction". A "European construction" that can in real terms address not finance capital's greedy interests, but the aspirations of Europe's workers and peoples, international solidarity and cooperation.
