Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-15-Speech-2-183"
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"Yes, Mr Bonde, we will be starting this debate with 700 young people in Brussels who are going to be working in the institutions and with the Commission. I believe that it will be good to start this dialogue with young people who are motivated.
In terms of social protection, I can confirm that we have made proposals about qualified majority or unanimous voting but these are regardless of ideology. In your country, Mr Bonde, like everywhere else, I believe people are keen for the internal market to work properly under the fairest conditions of competition and movement of goods and people. This will therefore be our rule. We are proposing that decisions on certain policies or measures involving taxation or social protection and social security should be taken by qualified majority voting when there is a direct link with the proper operation of the internal market. Our proposal is not general or systematic. I am well aware of the sensitivity of these taxation and social protection issues. I do not believe that all the national systems of social protection should be made identical. This has never been the case. We are simply trying to ensure, in a Europe with 30 or 27 Member States, the best conditions for the operation of the internal market without one country being able to block the other 26 or 27.
Mr MacCormick, I agree that this dialogue must reach beyond the national capitals. It must get as close as possible to the people, where they live and where they have their roots. If I said anything different I would be contradicting myself as Commissioner for Regional Policy which is one of the most specific and most visible policies for increasing employment and improving the quality of life of people in their regions. You will often hear me say that this policy does not just have one main objective of achieving cohesion and solidarity between the regions but that it is intended in addition to help people, where they live, to preserve their roots, traditions, soul and identity. We will therefore conduct this dialogue with the towns and regions.
Mr Berthu, the Helsinki mandate is clear and we are working within this. It specifies that we must deal firstly and as a priority with the three basic issues which were left out in Amsterdam. It also adds related institutional questions and issues which may be included in the negotiations depending on the Portuguese and French presidencies. The Commission is acting correctly if, on a particular point, it believes it must add to its opinion which covers many institutional questions. I am not yet sure that we will do this on Article 7. However, if we do, this will not be solely in response or as a reaction to an economic situation which is sufficiently serious that the fourteen governments of the Union must mobilise together to give their response. We will also do this with regard for the future in general.
We will use all the means available to permanently strengthen the community of values which we have been building together since the founding of the Union in 1957, and even before that, on the rubble of the Second World War. Everything which can be done will be useful. I am sure that you and I, Mr Berthu, can at least agree on this."@en1
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