Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-24-Speech-2-278"
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"en.20001024.9.2-278"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, Mrs Sudre, we must bear in mind that the opportunity for us to debate here in this House today on the subject of the outermost regions is the result of a process of slow maturation. The fact is, even though, as early as the Treaty of Rome, reference was made to the French overseas departments, we had to wait until 1989 and the programme of options specific to the remote and insular nature of these regions, the notorious POSEI programmes, for the European Union to at long last acknowledge that the permanence and combination of structural handicaps affecting the outermost regions justified special treatment in comparison with the other regions of the Community.
Eight years later, the Treaty of Amsterdam with its Article 299(2), the subject of our discussion today, gave rise to the hope that one day the terms ‘growth’ and ‘employment’ would mean the same thing throughout all European territory. So, it has been a long wait, and the hopes expressed by our peoples have built up throughout this long wait. I therefore feel entitled to confess that I felt rather disappointed when I read the Commission communication. Ladies and gentlemen, the time for stating good intentions is behind us, what we need is practical action and we need it now. We need a specific timetable, one that will be respected. We need real financial commitments, not, as we have in the 2001 budget, POSEI appropriations that, at the moment, have been cut by 25%. Most especially we need guarantees that this action will continue in the long term, because the handicaps of these regions, as listed in Article 299(2) – remoteness, insularity, small size, difficult climate – are not about to disappear.
I am therefore pleased that the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism has adopted a bold and ambitious stance on state aid, tax schemes and the implications of enlargement. I am pleased to see that the committee has adopted the bulk of the amendment I tabled. I should, moreover, like to pay tribute, at this point, to the rapporteur, Mrs Sudre, for her open-mindedness and her consultative approach, which made it possible, with everyone joining forces, to successfully complete a report which offers our regions real hope. Indeed I am convinced that the young people of our regions can actually glimpse a way out of the tragic unemployment which so drives them to despair, if we do manage to shift from a basically financial strategy, necessary, admittedly, but inadequate, to a more comprehensive strategy based on real recognition of our unique characteristics.
Ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, the outermost regions are already the very emblem of the diversity, and hence the wealth of the European Union. Tomorrow they may become a laboratory providing the finest illustration of the effectiveness of the experiment of the European social model. We need audacity, intelligence and compassion. I have no doubt but that the proposals which the Commission will submit to the Council will be characterised by these qualities."@en1
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