Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-11-Speech-2-015"
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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the annual debate on the State of the Union is one of our most important debates and, this year, it is taking place at a key moment for the European Union. In recent days and months, a Greater Europe has truly been taking shape. In less than twelve months, it will be possible to conclude the negotiations with the candidate countries that have satisfied the criteria set for enlargement, which will mean that the Union will be able to welcome up to ten new Member States before the next European elections.
Looking ahead to 2002, to give you a clearer picture of our tasks for the coming year, I am also sure that you will allow me to present the seven priorities indicated by the Commission in its work programme for 2002 by grouping them under four key headings. These four major areas are internal security, the euro and economic and social matters, enlargement and, lastly, the Future of Europe debate and the process of reforming the Union’s institutions.
The annual strategy we drew up last February revolved around six priorities. However, the events of 11 September – and you will all understand that any programme must be flexible if it is to deal with unforeseen circumstances – forced us to adopt a seventh. Therefore, in 2002, the Commission will present a number of measures to combat terrorism and organised crime and to safeguard the security of our citizens. They will include the launching of an integrated system for external border controls, the development of civil protection, public health measures and steps to improve transport safety. As I have already had the opportunity to say, when speaking at Bruges on 12 November, improving judicial and police cooperation will lay the foundations for the creation, in the longer term, of an integrated police force to combat organised crime and terrorism.
Ever since the beginning of its term of office, this Commission has included among the four cornerstones on which its work is based, the aim to extend Union action, hitherto primarily economic, to cover economic, social and environmental concerns. The programme for 2002 will not depart from this objective. The introduction of the euro will be the most significant as well as the most tangible step towards European integration. In this connection, I am particularly pleased that it has been possible to overcome all the political differences regarding cross-border payments, with the result that President Fontaine will shortly be able to announce the adoption of a common position. Thanks to the efforts made to prepare for the introduction of the euro, our economy is now strong, stable and, at the same time, the most open in the world.
What would have been the impact of 11 September if we had not had the euro? Stability is the basis for our future policies and we must safeguard it. The current economic situation is, of course, by no means easy, but I feel sure we will be able to overcome any short-term problems. We have the instruments to do so, and here I am referring, in particular, to the Stability Pact and the broad economic policy guidelines. We must, however, consider the need to improve the coordination of the budgetary policies of the countries in the euro zone. With the introduction of the single currency, our economies have never been as interdependent as they are now. With this in mind, I said recently that it might be advisable to concentrate on developing a code of conduct which would take specific account of the interdependence of the budgetary policies of the countries in the euro zone and would improve the overall coherence and the credibility of our economic policy.
My major concerns relate more to the long term. Europe does indeed need structural reform. It is the prerequisite for sustainable growth and job creation. We already have the right recipe. In two fundamental steps, both completed during the first part of this Commission’s term of office – at Lisbon in March 2000 and at Gothenburg in June 2001 – the Member States undertook to work towards sustainable development that can combine competitiveness, social justice and respect for the environment.
The Commission’s work programme for 2002 confirms this line of action. The implementation of the undertakings given at Gothenburg is one of the seven priorities identified for next year. Our commitment to preparing for and making a success of the meeting in Johannesburg on sustainable development is consistent with this course.
So where do these worries stem from? From the delays between the official adoption of the decisions and their practical implementation. The boulder blocking the course of the development of Galileo, an essential initiative and technology for the growth and competitiveness of the European economy, is only the latest on a list of obstructions that is now simply too long. There is no need to mention them all; one example will suffice: the European patent. The inability to fulfil solemnly given and announced undertakings and the lack of will to proceed along the road towards final completion of the single market are costing Europe very dearly. The cost of the failure to deliver on Europe, which we could call the failure to deliver on Lisbon, is rapidly becoming intolerable.
The annual economic report that the Commission will present in just over a month’s time, indeed as part of the preparations for the Spring Council, will contain a detailed analysis of the situation, and substantial progress will, at last, have to be made in Barcelona. However, as I pointed out in Bruges, on its own, the Commission can do nothing. The Member States need to assume their responsibilities and make the decisions that are incumbent upon them. Parliament too, moreover, will have to play its part: I am still convinced, for example, that the failure to reach an agreement on the new public procurement legislation has hindered the development of our financial markets. In this sector, the European economy is clearly weaker than its American counterpart.
The Commission is aware of the numerous factors that combine to make the economy healthy and, in 2002, it will present particularly important legislative proposals regarding banking and financial services. We will also present a strategy for consumer protection and measures to support private investment in research and development. One currency, one financial market and one economic policy, this must be our objective.
In any case, our main worry concerns an essential requirement for social cohesion, employment. This will be the case in 2002 and will remain so for many years to come. This is why, in Barcelona, we will present a communication on the social aspects of the restructuring of companies, aimed at the social partners, as we are convinced that there is a positive correlation between social protection and competitiveness.
In less than three weeks, the euro, the strongest and most visible sign of both the economic and political union of Europe, will become a tangible reality. Lastly, before the end of the week, the Laeken European Council will take the decision to set up a Convention, which will do the groundwork for the reform of the Treaties and, for the first time, bring together representatives of governments, national parliaments, the European Commission and this House. This greater Europe which is taking shape is a united, democratic, forward-looking Europe. The Commission has been working towards this in the year now drawing to a close and intends to continue to do so in the year that will shortly commence.
Completing the enlargement process and making it a success for the whole of the Union, that has been the Commission's number one priority since it first took office. It was on 13 October 1999 when, addressing this same House, I called upon the European Council to complete the reforms necessary for enlargement before the end of 2002 and stressed that the Commission was confident that negotiations with the countries fulfilling the accession criteria could be concluded by that date. Today, the date of 2002 has been formally endorsed by the Union. The progress achieved in the course of two years has been impressive. We still have before us, as I am only too aware, further stages in the negotiations that will be extremely sensitive – I need only mention the chapters on the Structural Funds or agriculture – but over the next twelve months, to those countries whose efforts have brought them to a state of readiness, the door will, at last, open, allowing them to join before the next elections to this House.
Two thousand and two will be a pivotal year, then, and the Commission's programme faithfully reflects its importance. This is not only because, as I pointed out just now, we must forge ahead with the negotiations and bring them to a successful conclusion; it is also because we must gradually begin to identify, for each of the common policies, the objectives and instruments made necessary by the new situation of an enlarged Union with new Member States. In the course of 2002, but even more so in 2003 and 2004 (and the same will apply to our successors in the years after that), we will have to bring about a genuine ‘intellectual revolution’. It is our discussions, our plans and our action that will shape the greater Europe. It is essential for the Commission to adjust to the new dimensions of Europe, but it is just as important for the other EU institutions and for the Member States of the Union to do so as well. We must explain this new situation to our citizens to help them overcome their anxieties and make them aware of the human, cultural and economic opportunities offered by enlargement.
From an economic standpoint, enlargement is one of the few games in which all the players stand to win. It will bring an increase in growth not only for the new Member States but also for the Fifteen. Of course, the impact of enlargement within the Union will vary from one country to another and from one region to another. Thanks to the single market, however, the benefits will be visible everywhere.
However, it is not enough for this greater Europe just to expand geographically to the east and the south. It must continue on the path of gradual rapprochement with the Balkans and project an arc of stability from its own gates towards Russia and the Ukraine and towards the Mediterranean. In preparation for the meeting in Valencia in April, the Commission will table proposals for improving the functioning of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, particularly in the fields of education and culture. Also in the course of next year, it will propose measures for stimulating investment, improving cooperation in the field of immigration and strengthening the Union's role in the Middle East peace process.
Enlargement is an accomplishment of historic significance. However, it must not lead to paralysis of the Union. This is the background against which the debate on European governance is taking place, a debate that the Commission helped to launch with its White Paper. It is crucial that the dialogue between our two institutions on the issues raised by the White Paper and the ensuing action should continue, and the work programme for 2002 lays down the details of this.
The debate on Europe and on the future has, however, spread well beyond the confines of the White Paper and has taken on a more clearly Constitutional tone. Moreover, right from the beginning of its mandate, this Commission has fought for renewed vigour to be injected into the institutional debate in the Union. As early as September 1999, addressing you here in this same Chamber, I insisted that the Intergovernmental Conference to be held in 2000 should adopt a broader agenda, above and beyond the ‘Amsterdam leftovers’. At that time, I told you of my fears that the IGC would merely tinker with the machinery and not give us effective tools to take decisions. After the essential but undoubtedly minimal agreement reached in Nice, the Commission, along with Parliament, immediately lent its support to the idea of a Convention, something which has now been generally agreed. I warmly welcome this development because I am firmly convinced that this is the right path to take if we are to build the new, more democratic, more transparent Europe.
In the meantime, a wide-ranging debate on the future of the Union is already taking place in all the European countries, and that debate must be ongoing and must provide input for the work of the Convention. The time when we could go on putting off the necessary reforms until tomorrow, as if events would always unfold slowly enough to await our decisions, is over. A major contribution to this discussion has already been made by the Mendez de Vigo and Kaufmann report and by the plenary debate which Parliament held on the topic.
In preparation for the Laeken Council, the Commission presented a communication on 5 December. As we explained in that document, which is intended merely to provide a few pointers for the debate, the key to the problem lies in renewing and strengthening the Community method. Our aim should not be to interfere with the balances that have been built up over the last fifty years. Rather, what we should be doing is modernising our system and enabling the peoples of Europe to identify with it. What the Convention should, in my view, produce is a coherent text, underpinned by its own logic, not a mere shopping list; a text adopted by consensus, which therefore does not seek unanimity at any price and which, to avoid scaling down its essential ambitions, voices minority views where necessary; a simpler, more easily readable text which clearly sets out not only the principles guiding our action – and the Charter of Fundamental Rights should be at the heart of those principles – but also the goals to which we are aspiring; a text which makes the way in which the European public authorities work more transparent, that is which gives a clear description of both the institutions and the instruments necessary for achieving the objectives they are assigned; and lastly, a text that is capable of evolving and is therefore, to this end, a combination of a set of fundamental rules and some more technical provisions.
Before the Convention begins its work, the Commission will state its position on many issues, such as the powers of the Union and of the Member States, the strengthening of Parliament's legislative role, the distinction between the Council's executive and legislative functions, and the Commission's executive tasks. The extension of majority voting, the procedures for revising the Treaties and the Union's own resources are other issues that also form part of the political debate and will have to be addressed in the near future.
Before leaving the subject of the forthcoming Convention, I would like to focus for a moment on an issue that is usually summed up by one word: the Constitution. For me, what is essential is not the name eventually given to the text that grows out of the work of the Convention and the Intergovernmental Conference. My objective is that that text, by virtue of its content and thanks to the open, democratic nature of the process that generated it, should ultimately be regarded by everyone as having the force of a Constitution. I am confident that the work programme for 2002 will provide the foundation on which, over the next twelve months, our two institutions can build a relationship of close, constant, fruitful cooperation.
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen of the European Parliament, before moving on to the work carried out by the Commission in 2001 and our programme for 2002, I would like to stress once again my belief that full, transparent cooperation between the institutions is essential for the smooth running of the Union. With this in mind, as early as January this year, I told you of the Commission's intention to revitalise our method of working together in order to make cooperation between our two institutions even more effective and transparent.
Before setting out these proposals, I would like, however, to go through the fundamental principles on which, I believe, our cooperation must be based. Firstly, the Commission's right of initiative must be safeguarded, as it is one of the pillars of the Community structure and the guarantor of its integrity. A strong Commission means a strong European Parliament. Secondly, the tripartite nature of interinstitutional cooperation must be safeguarded. Indeed, it will only be effective if the two legislative bodies – Parliament and the Council – can enter into dialogue with the Commission on a common basis of transparency.
I would now like to turn to my proposals for revitalising the system, which, I am sure, will help to greatly improve dialogue between our institutions. Firstly, from this year on, the work programme will no longer be a catalogue of planned legislation for that year; it will, as you have requested, be a genuine political programme. This programme, which the Commission hereby undertakes to follow closely, sets out both the priorities for the year in question and the initiatives needed to accomplish them. I know that some of you were surprised not to receive an annex to the 2002 work programme listing planned legislation, as has been the case in previous years. However, I want to point out that we listened very carefully to the views many of you expressed in this Chamber on 13 February. You asked the Commission, quite clearly, to abandon the method of listing legislative proposals employed thus far and to adopt a new method. We have made sure we complied with that request.
For these reasons, which were also set out in writing by Mrs Fontaine on 10 September, we have replaced the catalogue with the much more reliable instrument of quarterly programming, which is what the College uses to plan its work and of which you will be informed at regular intervals. To maintain perfect transparency, however, I have also asked the Secretary-General of the Commission to forward immediately to the Secretary-General of Parliament the preliminary list of proposals put forward by the Commission departments which formed the basis for the work programme for 2002. If this approach produces positive results, we are willing to use it in future years as well.
Secondly, it is equally important to point out that, in future, the preparation of such a programme will need to be based on a more structured dialogue between our institutions. This is why we have planned a multi-stage approach for the forthcoming year, with the preparation of the work programme for 2003 starting at the beginning of 2002. The two key dates for this political dialogue will be in February, when I will come to present to you the political priorities approved by the Commission for 2003, and November, when I will come to set out to you the work programme the Commission has adopted on the basis of these priorities.
The discussions at the Conference of Presidents have shown me that we are in agreement on the broad outline I have just described. For our part, we will make a start as soon as possible on establishing the details and commencing practical implementation. Mrs de Palacio, who, at my request, has begun a dialogue with you on this matter, will continue her work and the dialogue with the aim of concluding our agreement next January. Lastly, I feel it is important to stress that breaking the process down into stages should not increase our respective workloads but should enable us to continue to assume our respective responsibilities.
With regard to the 2001 budget, the list of what has been done over the course of a year is too long for me to give you a detailed account here and now. I shall therefore confine myself to focusing on the areas in which the Union, with a decisive contribution from the Commission, has achieved its greatest successes in 2001: the preparations for the changeover to the euro; the progress made in the enlargement negotiations; relations with the Balkan countries; the dialogue with Russia; the opening of a new round of trade negotiations at Doha; the adoption of a strategy for sustainable development which goes far beyond the mere adoption of a series of specific measures and which will gradually bring us to review all our internal policies; and lastly, the reinvigoration of the process of creating a common European area of justice and security, which has had a particularly high profile since 11 September. Throughout the year, in each of these fields, the Commission's actions have benefited from the crucial support of this House."@en1
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