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European socialist leaders propose new plan

05 March 2011 20:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Europe’s socialists on Saturday proposed a counter plan to a Franco-German competitiveness pact, that aims to strengthen the eurozone while ensuring economic recovery, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
"We have developed an alternative plan to the Sarkozy-Merkel plan, for creating eight million jobs in Europe while maintaining roughly the same fiscal consolidation as the competitiveness pact," Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, head of the Party of European Socialists (PES), told a news conference in Athens.
"We are now starting a European campaign," Rasmussen added, speaking at the end of a two-day meeting in Athens to discuss a "progressive" response to Europe’s economic woes.
While Europe’s conservatives are holding a parallel meeting in Helsinki on the same issues, the PES leaders attending the conference in Athens earlier in the day adopted a declaration entitled "Europe is in the wrong hands."
"The European rightwing is missing the big picture. It ignores the causes and dimension of the multi-faceted crisis that threatens our economy and societies," an excerpt from the text read.
"Europe is in the wrong hands. The PES can do a better job than the conservatives on all the issues that matter for European citizens," was written in the declaration.
Rasmussen on Friday called for the creation of joint eurozone bonds and a tax on financial transactions which he said could bring up to 250 billion euros ($347 billion) in revenue without necessarily chasing bankers and investors out of Europe.
The PES head also sent the EU Council a message that "it’s time for you to decide to bring down the interest rate for Greece and Ireland."
Greece and Ireland last year accepted loan bailouts from the EU and the International Monetary Fund which they have to repay at a rate of over five percent. Athens is now also seeking a longer repayment period on its loan.