Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-14-Speech-3-047"
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"en.20010214.3.3-047"2
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".
Mr President, Mr Bullmann, Mr Cocilovo, Mr Gasòliba i Böhm, first of all I should like to thank you for the chance Parliament is giving me to debate with you the Lisbon strategy, the system we have established to monitor what was decided there and how it is being put into practice.
We have included in the synthesis report, as Mr Bullmann has mentioned, a series of specific proposals, ten priorities that the Commission would like to see approved at the Stockholm European Council, so that they will enable us to make progress in strengthening our commitments to structural and social change, which is fundamental for the sustainable economic growth that will enable us to reduce unemployment and improve cohesion.
As the Commissioner responsible for Economic and Financial Affairs I should like to say a little more about three points that I think are relevant: first of all, the maintenance and strengthening of a stable macro-economic framework. In addition to the objective already mentioned of achieving a knowledge-based society with better jobs, I believe it is important to achieve a stable environment allowing us to achieve the objectives of price stability and healthy public finances in the medium term.
In the current favourable economic climate, despite the slowing of American growth, I believe we have to continue the processes of fiscal consolidation and improving the quality and sustainability of public finances, taking into account aspects as important as the ageing of the population, for instance. When I say quality, I mean especially a fiscal policy aimed more towards creating jobs, supporting research and innovation, and increasing investment in human resources. When I say sustainability of public finances I mean the ability to meet future obligations.
The second of my concerns is that we have to strengthen the potential growth of the Union. It is a fact that good progress has been made on the reforms needed so that we can maintain a model of permanent growth. Yet in this period of economic boom we have a unique opportunity to improve the internal market for services and achieve greater openings in sectors such as energy, transport and others that benefit the consumer. We are aware, of course, that any liberalisation process has to be accompanied at the same time by a regulation control plan, which in the end will allow us to achieve positive effects without a negative impact on society.
My last comment refers to job creation and a rise in the activity rate: we must remember that two thirds of the difference between the gross domestic product levels of the United States and the European Union is due precisely to the different use of the work factor. It is therefore absolutely fundamental to set in motion all the necessary fiscal and social reforms, including early retirement, pension plans or labour regulations, which will enable us to improve this situation. Also fundamental are elements like education and training, business incentives and also public investment, essential for job quality. All this should enable us Europeans to make progress along the line defined in Lisbon, which we all want to be consolidated in Stockholm.
The reports we are dealing with here, the Bullmann report and the Gasòliba i Böhm report, include a large number of suggestions that are very close to the content of the synthesis report. My idea is to take into consideration all these references and indications, some of which refer to specific indicators, and analyse them to see to what extent some of the elements put forward can be incorporated in our future reports.
Parliament is right when it points out that for the Lisbon strategy to be successful it is absolutely essential to have the commitment of all the players involved in the process. From this viewpoint the two reports presented to the House today are without any doubt basic elements and a clear expression of Parliament’s commitment to cooperate in the Lisbon process, which – as I said earlier – we hope will continue and improve with the decisions made in Stockholm.
Last year in Lisbon, the European Union, as Mr Bullmann has pointed out, set itself a goal which meant achieving over the next decade the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, allowing us to achieve sustainable economic growth with the creation of more jobs and greater social cohesion.
Mr Bullmann has stressed this global vision, a vision that I share absolutely, to which, of course, the Commission’s synthesis report responds. In this synthesis report the Commission not only tries to define the progress made so far since Lisbon but also what our next goals are. And Mr Bullmann has stressed this point too.
In Lisbon people said we should set some structural indicators that would enable us to draw a better comparison between the situations in the various countries. In Nice we defined 35 structural indicators, which are the ones the synthesis report is based upon. There is no doubt at all that they are useful tools for seeing the progress that has been made, the concrete objectives defined and the timetables for achieving them. They are also a reference for the progress we can make in the next few years.
It is true that in the way we designed them these indicators are not solely for use in the synthesis report; they will also be used in other Commission reports, such as the report on the implementation or fulfilment of the obligations resulting from setting the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines in motion.
The report – I am not going to repeat it – highlights what we consider to be the positive progress achieved during this period. There are clearly some elements, such as the progress made on certain liberalisations, that are without any doubt clearly positive. In other cases things are moving too slowly.
While success may focus, for instance, on the improved reorientation of the economic policy guidelines, taking the Lisbon objectives on board, or on subjects such as the approval of the taxation package, the European company statute or the adoption of the social Agenda in Nice, it is also true that there are areas where we are lagging behind, such as the Community patent, the Galileo programme, or others as significant as the lifelong learning strategy or the tax benefit systems, which are certainly fundamental for growth and employment.
In any case, the synthesis report highlights the good performance of the economy, the growth achieved last year and that expected next year, and the creation of 2.5 million jobs, which is, without any doubt, a fundamental point.
In any case, the synthesis report aims to stress that the Lisbon objective is a global objective, as Mr Bullmann has pointed out. We must not just think exclusively about growth and forget about the other aspects of Lisbon. There is no doubt that macro-economic growth and stability are fundamental elements, but employment and social cohesion are too."@en1
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