11/04/2011 Session
At the end of a debate on the over-indebtedness of states and its consequences for democracy and for citizens, parliamentarians called on European governments to devise "graduated strategies for public debt stabilisation and subsequent reduction". At the same time, member states should ensure that they "contain the erosion in living standards and citizen’s socio-economic rights", by endeavouring to spread the effects of austerity measures fairly across the population and to spare vulnerable groups the weight of adjustments.
Following the conclusions of the rapporteur Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands, EPP/CD) on this matter, the Assembly also emphasised the importance of ensuring "full transparency of state accounts in order to uphold democracy". In this context, parliamentarians expressed concern that member states had been forced to guarantee each other's sovereign debt, as had been the case, for example, for Iceland and Greece. They warned that inter-state guarantees increased systemic risk in Europe, as one state's default could lead to a chain reaction which would damage public finances. They therefore called on member states to "prepare plans for a gradual scaling down of such guarantees".