Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-07-21-Speech-3-025"
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"en.19990721.3.3-025"2
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"(DE) Mr President, I have no desire to involve myself in a private German dispute.
(Applause)
(UK) I would like to congratulate Germany on a broadly successful Presidency though I would venture to suggest that it might have been perceived as more successful had it been trumpeted rather less. Recent presidencies – Austria and Luxembourg with their low key presentation – can teach larger Member States such as Germany and the United Kingdom that the impact of a Presidency is sometimes in directly inverse proportion to its fanfare.
This has been a difficult Presidency. The Kosovo conflict started during the European Council in March. The news that Belgrade had accepted the peace terms came during your Cologne Summit in June; and the resignation of the Commission ten weeks into your Presidency cannot have made life any easier.
I would like to concentrate my remarks on three areas – employment, enlargement and citizenship. Employment, Mr President, is a constant reminder of the failure of Western democracies to be inclusive and I would welcome some very good new ideas that came up during this Presidency. Allowing Member States to reduce VAT on labour-intensive services where there are no cross-border implications; a renewed emphasis on research and development and a more imaginative use of European Investment Bank money such as in the creation of the European technology facility; changes in work organisation and working time to share out better the work available. These are all ideas that came up and they deserve to be pursued.
I regret that less progress was made on Agenda 2000. The Presidency claims to have created the financial framework for enlargement to the east. I hope that is the case but I believe that the reality is that we backed away from the tough decisions on agricultural reform. That will lead to problems in transatlantic relations and to further delay in the integration of Central and Eastern European applicant countries into the European Union.
But the most important progress has been in the area of citizens' rights. If we are to get this right, we need a new approach from the Member States. If we are to create an area of freedom, security and justice – promised to us at Amsterdam – then we will need transparency. It is a disgrace that important documents regarding the Third Pillar have still not been made public, but I would pay homage to the role of Mr Fischer himself in this particular area and thank him for his help. Amsterdam heralds a new dawn in the rights of European citizens. It was a brave decision of the German Presidency to table and to advance the idea of a charter of fundamental rights. Your pluralistic approach, your attempt to involve the European Parliament and national parliaments can only add to the likelihood of success. We as a Parliament, Mr President-in-Office, look forward to working with the Council and the Commission in securing the anchoring of fundamental rights and fundamental freedoms for the citizen in European law."@en1
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