Europe's big plan

A defining day for the EU that saw the Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, present a vision of a more integrated future to Parliament, with an ambitious package of reforms. Banking supervision and fiscal union, a multi-year budget for growth, treaty revision... new treaty creation to hang it all together. We are determined to reform and to reform together. The idea that we can grow without reform, or that we can prosper alone, is simply false. We must recognise that we are in this together and we must resolve it together. This decisive deal requires the completion of a deep and genuine economic union based on a political union. Ultimately, Mr Barroso said, it's focused on socially-minded growth. Working together, squeezing out the negative agenda of nationalists within a European federation of nation states. This is the house of European democracy. We must strengthen the role of the European Parliament at European level. This also cannot be done without strengthened European political parties. For many he didn't go far enough. We must continue towards more European integration. We also need more concrete reforms. Dear friends, we've spoken about the crisis for three years now. My group thinks it's high time to have a social pact, not only a weak growth pact, not only a stronger fiscal pact. What we need for Europe is not a federation of nation states, it's a federal union of the European citizens. Even as he spoke, Germany's highest court was ruling on whether a key component of reform, the creation of the European Stability Mechanism, breaches German law. In the end it ruled it doesn't, clearing the way for German ratification of a mechanism vital to eurozone recovery and market reassurance. European shares leapt in response to a 14-month high.

EuroparlTV video ID: 65d5c0eb-17a7-4410-8844-a0ca01359abf