Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-24-Speech-3-017"
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"en.20011024.1.3-017"2
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Madam President, Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start by saying that the Commission welcomes with great satisfaction some good news, at last, which has come in recent days, namely that the Irish Republican Army has started to decommission its arms in accordance with the Good Friday agreement. The Commission will follow the consolidation of the reconciliation process in Northern Ireland closely, not least through our Peace programme.
Despite the importance and success of this joint action, the fact is that media attention has largely been focused on what individual countries have been doing. This has somewhat obscured and tainted the ongoing debate on the specific role Europe as a whole should be playing on the international stage. That is precisely the issue I want to focus on today.
From the very start of my term of office, one of my Commission’s objectives has been to consolidate Europe’s influence in the world. This has become even more urgent in the light of the new world situation.
If the European Union is to be a leading actor on the world stage, it must speak with a single, clear, dynamic voice and it must support its words with unified action.
The Union has made progress in this direction, it cannot be denied. You only have to compare, for example, the disparate attitudes of our Member States to the Gulf War, a decade ago, with our recent united stance on the situation in the FYROM and our present coherent response to terrorism. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Belgian Presidency for the excellent work it has done to promote this process and for the courageous and intelligent way in which it has maintained support for the Union’s common, shared goals.
However, we are still a very long way from achieving the genuinely common foreign and security policy we so badly need. I am therefore very glad that, in the Union’s declaration of 14 September, we publicly committed ourselves to developing our common foreign and security policy and to ensuring that the Union really can speak out clearly and with one voice.
A common policy is not, of course, the same thing as a single policy uniformly adopted by every Member State. No, a common policy pools the different strengths of the individual countries, enabling them to pursue shared goals using shared instruments.
Has Europe been ‘absent’, as some people allege? My answer is ‘No’ although we need to make a certain distinction here. Europe is taking very specific, effective action in those fields where integration is a possibility or a practical reality. This is not at all surprising, since the Community method has, for the last fifty years, ensured that Europe can act effectively, rapidly and visibly in all the fields in which this is possible.
It is in areas where Europe is less integrated, where the Community method is virtually or wholly absent, that the European Union seriously lacks effectiveness. This hard fact should make us even more resolute in our preparations for the major future political developments in the Union.
A common policy ensures that the different national policies are co-ordinated within a Community framework according to the Community method so that they serve the interests of the Union as a whole. In the field of the common foreign and security policy we have not yet reached that point because the necessary consensus has not yet been achieved. We are in a transition period, so to speak. However, that must be our objective. We must lose no time in establishing a policy that builds on our experience of Community action and makes full use of the tools available to us.
Our first priority must be to be united in our action. In my view, individual action taken by only a few countries is in the interests neither of the Union as a whole nor of its individual Member States, be they large or small. At Ghent, I noted that no Member State wants to move in that direction, but the Commission will remain vigilant, on behalf of us all.
Secondly, we need specific institutional mechanisms for taking policy decisions. That is the kind of common foreign and security policy we must develop, building on the progress we have already made, and we need to develop it fast if we are to make any useful impact on the world now emerging after the tragedy of September 11.
I am pleased to note that Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs has discussed at length and with great care the implications of the common foreign and security policy for the functioning of the institutions and, in particular, of the Council.
I welcome the proposals put forward in the Poos report and I commend Mr Poos for his achievements in addressing these so very delicate and sensitive issues. I call upon this House to endorse them fully today and upon the Council to undertake to implement them as soon as possible. The Commission is ready to play its full part in this necessary process.
The statements issued on 14 September have important implications for the Union’s foreign policy priorities.
In the short to medium term, we must focus even more on our dialogue with the Arab and Islamic worlds, on the Middle East peace process, for the Middle East is at the centre of the current world events, and on exploiting the full potential of the Barcelona process – and this is where our task lies.
The time has come to make new moves in our Mediterranean policy. The results we have achieved so far have not been altogether satisfactory, though this has not always – or rather has often not – been our fault. We must now take full advantage of all the opportunities open to us to ensure genuine progress. The Euro-Mediterranean region must aim at genuine economic integration and at setting up institutional mechanisms for taking common decisions.
We are also widely expected to play a new role in the Middle East. We must take practical, joint action to respond to this challenge which, although tough, is within our capabilities.
Further afield, we need to review our policies on trade and co-operation with Pakistan, India and Iran as well as with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. Tangible progress has been made with regard to Pakistan in recent days.
I also believe we should be ready to respond to the renewed signs of interest in joint action on shared goals – such as the fight against AIDS – coming from countries like Libya. This is a completely new development. Once again, Europe is in an excellent position to respond to these political signals and to help such countries join our alliance.
We also need to work energetically to develop a consistent, active policy in relations between the Union and all its neighbours. Partnerships with specific goals, institutions and resources, particularly in our relations with Russia and the Ukraine. Partnerships that will ensure lasting stability in our continent. This time of change is also the right time to boost these policies.
Lastly, world wide, we have to build fresh confidence, and one key way we can do so in the immediate future is to successfully launch a new round of world trade talks.
Following the attacks on 11 September against the United States – our longstanding allies – the European Union has publicly committed itself to doing all it can to help bring the perpetrators, organisers and sponsors of these acts to justice, and to holding accountable those hiding, supporting or harbouring them. We thus pledged our complete solidarity with the government and people of the United States.
At the same time, we must work harder to offer the world’s poorest regions a genuine chance of sustainable development. I have said it before, and I will say it again: we must guide the process of globalisation so that it works for the good of all, poor as well as rich.
We Europeans must be proud of the policies we have been pursuing as we prepare for enlargement, for they are the only democratic globalisation policies thus far developed in the world, and I would stress that: the European Union project is the only democratic globalisation process in existence.
We therefore have to tackle, energetically, boldly and imaginatively, the global issues that breed resentment and discontent such as poverty, widening gaps in income and the now intolerable economic and social imbalances.
These are the things that sow frustration and tension in relations between the developing world and the West. The anti-terrorism alliance must advance hand in hand with a development alliance, with the Union leading by example.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Extraordinary European Council Meeting of 21 September asked the Commission to analyse the economic impact of the terrorist attacks. We did so immediately, and the Commission presented its report to the Ghent European Council.
The European economy was clearly slowing down even before 11 September. The immediate consequence of the terrorist attacks was a further loss of consumer confidence and a widespread sense of uncertainty.
However, there are several positive factors to bear in mind, factors that enable us to face the current shock much more calmly than in similar circumstances in the past.
Firstly, the fundamental aspects of our economy. The European economy, unlike that of the United States, is free of trade imbalances and Europeans still have a very strong tendency to save. Moreover, unlike in previous crises, the Union has been largely protected from possible shockwaves of devaluations and counter-devaluations of currencies by the existence of a solid, reliable single currency, the euro. Just think what would have happened if we had not had the euro! The events of recent weeks should make us even more proud of the quantum leap forward that the euro has allowed us to take.
Secondly, our programme. We are undertaking structural reforms, following a strategy carefully defined at Lisbon. The reforms are far from complete, but the present crisis should strengthen our political resolve to see them through. I therefore call upon this House and the Council to stop hesitating and to speed up the approval of all the decisions taken at and after Lisbon to make the European economy more efficient.
Only if we meet the Lisbon objectives and targets will we be able to minimise the extent and duration of unemployment and maximise growth potential in the medium and long term.
Over the days that followed, I was very pleased to see this declaration of solidarity translated into swift, concerted action at European level.
Thirdly, our instruments. We have achieved significant control of taxes that will still give us some room for manoeuvre during the slowdown. However, the problem of coordinating our economic policies arises at this stage in all its severity, and it arises because, in this sector too, we continue to have difficulty in applying the Community method.
On the basis of this, I conveyed to the European Council two messages. Firstly, the information currently available shows that our economy is genuinely resilient. If not an optimistic message, this at least gives no cause for concern. Secondly, however, we need to continue to monitor economic trends closely, not only in the Union and the euro zone but also worldwide. If the situation changes we must be ready to act using the instruments available to us.
Once again, let me stress the importance of co-ordinated action. With the current degree of integration, all action must be properly co-ordinated at Eurozone and European Union level. In the present uncertain situation, we must show that we are acting in a co-ordinated manner and that we have the will to use all the available instruments.
Madam President, Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, this is a time for the greatest possible unity, determination and resolution. We must ensure that lasting hope comes out of the evil of 11 September.
Our peoples’ reactions to the recent events show that Europe needs to be more, not less present. If Europe is to fully live up to its pledge of solidarity – solidarity with the United States but also the safeguarding of global solidarity – the Member States of the European Union must genuinely act as one Community. The Commission will continue to work tirelessly to achieve this.
Mr Patten, the Belgian foreign minister, Mr Michel, and Mr Solana went first to Washington and then on to Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria to help build a global alliance against terrorism.
European authorities began rapidly stepping up intelligence and police cooperation, both within the EU and with third countries, especially the US.
On the basis of emergency legislation agreed at Community level, the European Union froze over EUR 100 million of assets of people suspected of terrorism.
It drew up uniform, Union-wide standards to improve security for air travellers. It tabled proposals for a common definition of terrorism, for a system of EU-wide penalties for terrorist offences and for a European arrest warrant. These proposals were firmly supported by the European Council at its extraordinary meeting on 21 September.
On that occasion, the Council called upon each European Union country to ‘contribute according to its means’ to the new global campaign against terrorism, and this is, indeed, what has been happening, with some countries mobilising or offering troops and others providing intelligence or making available air bases."@en1
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