Alex Taylor, euronews:
“Europe is in a big, big mess. We elected 736 members of the European parliament in 2009. What are they doing about it? Who better to answer your questions than the president of the parliament itself, Jerzy Buzek.

The first question is from Italy:
“Hi. I’m Gregory Collina. I come from Italy and I wanted to ask President Buzek which measures the European Parliament intends to take to end the economic crisis. Thank you.”

euronews:
“A vast question, but can you actually do anything other than just debate?”

Jerzy Buzek:
“The most important job is to restore credibility both on the side of the citizens and financial markets and entrepreneurs.”

euronews:
“But how can you do that? Is it just communication?”

Jerzy Buzek:
“Well, for example, cutting down the bankers’ bonuses or to improve the so-called ‘six-pack’ — I mean automatic sanctions for the countries which would like to keep to the stability pact. Another very important (thing) is to defend the euro as a currency of the European Union. It’s connected with strong solidarity and support for Greece. We should support Greece, and we should say that it is very important for all of our citizens, for all the member states, that Greece can manage.”

euronews:
“But support in what terms? By forcing people to give money to Greece? Or by an effort of communication?”

Jerzy Buzek:
“Well, we can contact through our members (sic), the 17 member states of the euro zone, and we can create an atmosphere of general help to Greece.
I think it’s also very important that we have a resolution, we can contact Mr Juncker or Mr Trichet -they are dealing with euro zone problems, and to influence them towards defending (the) euro as a European currency because it’s very important for all of us. It’s a very big success of (the) European Union.”

euronews:
“Let’s have another question for Mr Buzek.”

A question from Spain:
“My name is Fernando – I’m Spanish. With regard to the situation we are in today because of the debt crisis in southern countries — especially Greece — how is it we didn’t see it coming, and why didn’t we make greater fiscal integration in the euro zone. Why didn’t we predict it 10 years ago?

euronews:
“What he’s saying is: the problem is we should have had more Europe before it’s too late.”

Jerzy Buzek:
“Yes, that’s right. And the European Parliament was always creating the atmosphere for better co-ordination, better integration in the European Union. And I think we should discuss this problem with the member states because many decisions must be, at the beginning, taken by the member states. Then, the community institutions like (the) European Commission, (the) European Parliament could act very freely.”

euronews:
“You have ‘co-decision’ don’t you? Just explain to us what the European Parliament has as power.”

Jerzy Buzek:
“‘Co-decision’ is between the European Parliament and the Council, that means the ministers. But we created, on the basis of the Lisbon Treaty, quite a new institution – the European Council with a permanent president, Mr Van Rompuy. It’s a very strong institution. So many decisions, and also the cooperation between the European institutions, depends on the European Council today.
“And it’s very important that governments, leaders of governments, prime ministers, presidents, chancellors are ready to support European institutions, and to go through community methods, not to divide ourselves. For example the euro zone – 17 member states and the rest of the European Union. It’s very important, and the European Parliament is defending our whole community – 27 member states.”

euronews:
“Let’s have another question for the President of the European Parliament.”

A question from Spain:
“Hello, my name is Estrela. I’m from Galiza. As Europe is intervening in some economies of different member states, I would like to know if there is any plan to improve the transparency about the cost of having MEPs and other people in the European bureaucracy, including secretaries and the rest of the team.

euronews:
“We have the impression (that) we don’t really know what’s going on in this parliament.”

Jerzy Buzek:
“(The) Bureaucracy is not so big. We spent only five percent of our budget on administration. It’s really not very much, much less than in any other national budget.
“Another thing is transparency. Online transmissions of all our meetings, plenary, also committees. Also offices in all the member states.
“We have our visitors’ centre, everybody could see the European Parliament.
“And the code of conduct, how to make more transparent all the members of the European Parliament.
“And conflict of interest will be written in a very simple and open way, and also the declaration of interests.
“So it’s very important. We had to change some points, because now we are a rather powerful institution on the basis of the Lisbon Treaty, so that was the reason for going ahead with such transparency and ideas.

euronews:
“Do you think there’ll still be two parliaments – Strasbourg and Brussels – in 10 years, 20 years time? It costs a lot of money.”

Jerzy Buzek:
“It depends on the member states, and I would like to say that should be a decision of the Council. The Council could take independent (sic) member states to say they’ve brought many many things into the European Union.
“We prefer to have much more ‘community’ decisions as the European Parliament, because they are, in our opinion, in many, many fields more fruitful for our citizens. And our most important obligation is to defend our citizens and to answer their questions.”

euronews:
“Let’s answer another question from some European citizens here in the euronews studio.

Question from Belgium:
“Hello, I am Celine, I’m Belgian. I’d like to know what Mr Buzek does for us in our everyday life.”

euronews:
“What a vast question. We know about travellers’ rights, for example it’s up at the airports, a few things about ecology. Just give us in one minute, what do you do to improve our lives?”

Jerzy Buzek:
“When I think about the democratic responsibility of the European Parliament, and trying to understand what is most important for our citizens. For example, some time ago, we changed the costs of using our mobiles by lowering the roaming (charges) three times lower than it was before.
“We are doing a lot on the single market of the European Union, how to unblock the bottlenecks in the European common market for small and medium enterprises.

euronews:
“Isn’t it frustrating sometimes though that you can’t do more to help people’s lives, wouldn’t you like to do more?”

Jerzy Buzek:
“For example, the European budget, more investment is the responsibility of the European Union and the European Parliament especially. And also how to connect our countries with energy lines – electricity and gas inter-connections – to make us more secure. And also how to buy electricity or gas outside the European Union. How to develop green technologies, how to spend money on that, everything is the decision on the level of the European Parliament. We are reponsible for the European budget and sometimes we don’t know where (the) money is coming from, but it is the decision of the European Parliament.

euronews:
“Thank you very much indeed Jerzy Buzek. See you next time from our wonderful and totally virtual studio here in the European Parliament – our parliament – here in Brussels.”

Copyright © 2012 euronews

Coming Up

Ellen Townsend

Policy Director, European Transport Safety Council (ETSC)

29/05/2012

Fatalities have fallen by 42% since 2001, but more than 30,000 people still die on the EU's roads each year. How we can make Europe's roads safer?

Participate in the next edition