Laurent Fabius Quotations

The demographic weight of countries such as China and India exercise a massive pressure on our wages and salaries. They have accomplished massive technological advances and the revolution in information technology has reduced the costs of transport.

France on its own cannot impose its point of view. But neither should it give up on its demands. With a clear vote for change France will be in a strong position.

I am a partisan and artisan of Europe. But I draw the lessons of my experience in government.

For a long time many believed that there would be an automatic adjustment and counted on a rapid increase in the wages of the emerging nations, on our advances in technology and the costs of transport preventing disruption. But this reassuring analysis is out of date.

At the same time the Constitution sets in stone the Stability Pact and risks preventing member States from implementing a policy of growth. So we are not able to do things at the European or the national level.

There are 20 million unemployed and what does the Constitution offer us in the Europe of 25, 27 and soon to be 30: policies of unrestricted competition to the detriment of production, wages, research and innovation.

But Maastricht was not the end of history. It was a first step towards a Europe of growth, of employment, a social Europe. That was the vision of Francois Mitterrand. We are far from that now.

The single currency should allow the European Union, and therefore France, to balance its monetary strength with the United States. It should help us adjust to the development of China.

We on the left who are pro-European and Internationalist wish to unite the peoples under a social model.

This assumes an upward revision of the European Budget, which is precisely what Jacques Chirac refuses to do. On the contrary, he has demanded a reduction.

This revision of the Constitution will not be perfect. But at least the Constitution will not be inflexible. It will be a step towards the Social Europe which we wish.

I want to make an extremely strong appeal to those who abstained. Vote. It takes five minutes and then it's for five years.

There is a social crisis which risks getting worse.

One of the reasons for this decision is that the share price is crawling along and that in new privately managed logic the way to lift shares is to cut jobs.

I have always conceived of the construction of Europe as a movement which permits slowly and surely an upwards social and economic harmonisation.

If we wish to develop scientific research, a transport policy, public services, it is necessary to have the financial means to do so.

Italy is one of the pillars of Europe and one could be quite worried, ... So I think there is a need for a clarification at the level of the heads of government.

I think there will be talks between the banks and the unions. But the introduction of the euro is a historic act,

I think really this time it's a historical moment,

We have strayed from a rational (oil) market equilibrium and it is our duty to reset this market's reference points, ... If the current pressures were to be perpetuated, they could threaten the pursuit of global growth, as we have learned - in a different context, it is true -- from past oil shocks.

We need to act at the same time on prevention, repression, education, housing, jobs ... and not play the cowboy.

When he announces that he's going to visit such and such a commune or suburb every week, that's not how we resolve those problems,

Very often we use the word historical but it's not historical. This time it is, because I think this is the first time 12 nations, 12 large nations, decide to join their currency, their sovereignty, and to have the same currency. And it's not only a question of a new currency, it's a new stage in the building up of the European Union.

Europe is viewed as being the steady and growing element of the whole system,

The U.S. withdrawal from the Kyoto protocol endangers the entire process.

This is very good news for the Socialists. I think it is important that the Socialist Party closed ranks on a leftist ticket.

derail economic expectations of economic agents, and put public budgets in danger of new imbalances.

I hope that this trial will serve truth and justice, ... I hope this necessary trial will allow us to establish that from what we knew, we acted in good conscience.

I really urge the government to withdraw this bad project before there is a serious accident.

But with this last enlargement Europe has changed its nature. The new countries are diverse. The old methods will no longer work.

I do think there is a need for coordination of economic policy, but this doesn't mean that everybody has to do the same thing, and there has to be a recognition that if the individual houses are not in order, the end product cannot be a good one.

The Commission's proposal was adopted by all countries except Ireland, ... It is true it is the first time that such a step has been taken and it is obviously important.

Shopkeepers are not bankers.

The U.S. withdrawal from the Kyoto protocol endangers the entire process.

If the US economic landing is soft there will be no consequences (for Europe).

The EU should help the emergence of "organized multipolarity" in the currently non-polar world.

Without sounding too grandiose, the survival of the planet itself is at stake, you have rising sea levels, acidification of the oceans, immigration sparked by climate change, droughts that are much more severe.

Thanks to the euro, our pockets will soon hold solid evidence of a European identity. We need to build on this, and make the euro more than a currency and Europe more than a territory... In the next six months, we will talk a lot about political union, and rightly so. Political union is inseparable from economic union. Stronger growth and Euorpean integration are related issues. In both areas we will take concrete steps forward.