Keith Vaz
Main Page: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)Department Debates - View all Keith Vaz's debates with the Cabinet Office
(13 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Speaker
Order. Once again, I appeal to Members to help each other by being brief.
Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)
Given the current economic crisis in Europe, does the Prime Minister believe that the Europe 2020 strategy still has a future as a successor to the Lisbon benchmarks, and is he confident that we will achieve those shared goals?
The Prime Minister
The short answer is that the 2020 strategy needs to have a future and we must encourage European Union countries to spend more time focusing on what really drives growth, which is completing the single market, rather than some of these initiatives on medium-term fiscal austerity and big transfers of sovereignty. I know that they are important—and particularly important for some in the EU—but real growth will be driven through the single market.