Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-24-Speech-3-028"
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"en.20011024.1.3-028"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, I would first of all like to congratulate the Belgian Presidency, as I think that the excellent way in which the Ghent European Council fulfilled its duties and its responsibilities is a positive and hopeful sign that our institutions are working well. I believe that this European Council was worthwhile, and was acting perfectly within its powers, in other words, in the role of providing guidance. I would like to make three points in relation to this. The first point concerns the issues that are called JHA in our jargon. These issues involve a great deal of intense and difficult work, and the Ministers for Home Affairs and Ministers for Justice of each of our Member States will not be able to make progress on these, unless they have before them bold proposals such as those that Commissioner Vitorino made, and unless they are constantly reminded of the political direction favoured by the European Council. These are difficult subjects, which require will and political determination in order to make progress. Thank you, Mr President, for giving these conclusions.
As for the economic situation, I think that the European Council worked hard to point out where the room for discussion between the economic and monetary authorities must be. If we really want to put in place a policy to support growth, and this is, without doubt, necessary for the European Union, we need everyone to shoulder their responsibilities, to fully utilise the room for manoeuvre in the Stability and Growth Pact and in the monetary policy, to mobilise the European Investment Bank, so that we finally get across the idea that this is a major undertaking, even if it means going back to square one. This is also the direction that you described, in relation to the launch of the WTO negotiations. We must not, however, forget our responsibilities, the contribution we can make, for example, to a subject as important as that of cancelling the debts of developing countries.
The third area on which you gave some guidelines, and I would like to thank you for doing so, is that of cross-border payments. Mr President, I would like to draw your attention to the delicate issue of cheques. At a time when we are changing over to the euro, we know that these cheques are used primarily by vulnerable sectors of society. So, let us stop creating obstacles and let things take their course, as, for once, we are not in a great rush.
Lastly, Mr President, you stated that you hope the question of Europe’s position on the world stage will be discussed openly at Laeken. And Mr Prodi, you asked if Europe was absent from the world stage. No, Europe is not absent! Europe did everything it could do and everything it should have done. The only difficulty is that Europe is not always heard that is the problem. At Durban, we made ourselves heard, but when it comes to having a real influence on the political, diplomatic and military situation, we still lack the support from the European Union. We are expecting a great deal from the Convention in this respect."@en1
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