Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-06-12-Speech-2-231"
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"en.20010612.12.2-231"2
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".
As the honourable Member knows, the European Council in Nice adopted a declaration which was appended to the Final Act, in which the measures which the Swedish and Belgian Presidencies would take were clearly set out. In this context, on 7 March 2001 the Swedish Presidency, the coming Belgian Presidency, the President of the European Parliament and the President of the Commission made a joint declaration which formally opened the debate on the future development of the EU.
The hope is that, based on a number of operational centres and a variety of contributions, a debate will be promoted which has greater scope than ever before. The debate will be concentrated on the fundamental challenges which the European Union is facing in the decades ahead and will stimulate proposals on how these challenges are to be met rationally when it comes to policy decisions, institutions and organisation of the work.
In order to be able to create a ‘citizens’ forum’ – a place where all the elements of the debate can be collected and made available – the website ‘Future of Europe’ was opened on the same day. The first contribution to the debate was made by Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and President of the Commission Romano Prodi in order to inspire others to follow suit.
On the same day the Swedish Prime Minister wrote to his colleagues in the Member States and candidate countries, inviting them to take part, for example by contributing to the website. The Prime Minister also sent similar letters to the European Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Committee of the Regions, the Economic and Social Committee, the Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees (COSAC) and labour market partners.
Opening the debate in this way has meant that, even at this early stage, a large number of initiatives have been taken in Member States, candidate countries and by the EU institutions, in various debate forums. So far everyone has been interested in a truly open and broad debate on the future of the European Union in the spirit of the Nice Declaration. I am convinced that the debate will take off over the next few months as more contributions are made.
In addition, the Swedish Presidency has drawn up a status report ahead of the European Council in Gothenburg, in which facts are presented on the initiatives taken at national and European level to promote wide-ranging discussions between all parties, including representatives of national parliaments, political, economic and academic circles, civil society, etc. We also highlight in this report certain trends which we believe can be seen in the debate with regard to the next phase of preparatory work for the next Intergovernmental Conference.
When it comes to fulfilling the undertakings in the declaration on the future of the European Union, it is up to the Belgian Presidency to continue reflecting on the initiatives needed for this process to continue. The plan is that a declaration on this issue should be adopted at the European Council in Laeken in December. Therefore I believe that Mr Nogueira Román’s comment regarding silence and lack of significant initiatives is incorrect. On the contrary, the Swedish Presidency has followed the Nice Declaration fully in actively trying to stimulate an important debate on the future of the European Union through a wide range of initiatives."@en1
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