Mr President, how is it possible that the European Council did not pay any attention to the IMF's admission of errors in calculating fiscal multipliers and the impact of austerity, with the consequent tragic costs in terms of the recession endured directly by the peoples of Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain and Italy, and the indirect weakening of the eurozone and the Union's economic outlook as a whole?

How come the Commission, which is supposed to be the promoter of European interests and which is part of the troikas in bailout countries, is not pressing those troikas to reassess the adjustment programmes in the light of these mistakes, which have been admitted by the IMF, and of Director Lagarde's clear recommendations to allow more time and reasonable interest, in order for those countries to adjust?

How can the Council and Commission continue to insist on ‘perpetual imprisonment in austerity', as French President François Hollande has so rightly put it, for EU bailout countries, which has such dangerous economic and political consequences for the whole of the European Union?