Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-01-16-Speech-3-057"
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"en.20020116.6.3-057"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I would like to thank the Spanish Presidency for appearing here so quickly, in accordance with what has now become the custom, and I would point out that we have passed the mid-point of the legislature with a clear conservative shift in the Council, which, Mr President, is confirmed by your position as President of the CDI – the Centre Democratic International for you and the Christian Democratic International for Mr Poettering; in any event, conservative.
With regard to enlargement, it falls to you to make progress on something which you not going to be able harvest, but you have to do it and I welcome the fact that you are taking this on responsibly.
With regard to the European Union’s international action, I believe that, as well as the need to persevere in the Middle East and relaunch the Euro-Mediterranean process, Latin America, and Argentina in particular, should currently be the focus of attention. We share your concern. We believe that we should respond in a decisive fashion, led by the Commission. We Europeans have historical debts and links with Argentina, with those people who fled hunger or oppression. We must tell the Argentinians that they must believe in their country, in their values and that we will be able to help them. I would ask the Commission to put forward a practical proposal in this field.
Lastly, Mr President, I will comment on the debate on the Convention and governance. We welcome the historic milestone represented by the establishment of the Convention. We have been fighting for it for many years. The European Council has accepted the idea of doubling the European and national parliamentary presence. Your presence has been increased more, with the troika and the presidential triumvirate, but we have gained in a relative sense. You are perfect hosts. You have not said what you think about ‘more Europe’. Is it a cause for amendment? In any event, Mr President, I believe that the great majority of this House is in favour of constitutionalising the process, of creating a Federation of States and Citizens.
Ladies and gentlemen, we do not see the Convention as a battle between parties and in this regard I must point out that Mr Berlusconi said in
on 12 January that we are in favour of centralising everything. Centralising what? The media? In this respect we really are willing to jointly defend our project.
A final word on governance and codecision. You applaud the Mandelkern report, but we are not familiar with it and that concerns us very much. We have yet to debate the Lamfalussy procedure. We do not support the report of a distinguished official of the Council whom we do not know and which may go against the principle of codecision. You must speak to us and sow and tend the crop, as well as harvesting it.
Your presidency’s programme follows the normal tendency for the Council’s six-month approach of aiming for as many successes as possible. But, of course, it is not sufficient to reap the harvest, but we must also sow seeds and tend the crop. Mr President, please allow me to analyse the six objectives of the Spanish Presidency, which you have summed up in three categories, in the light of this approach.
I shall mention firstly the area of freedom, justice and security, with the fight against terrorism as a priority. You have rightly acknowledged that the European Parliament acted as a pioneer by stating that there was a need for a Community anti-terrorist policy. It did so before 11 September. We worked very hard on the Commission’s proposals and would have this policy by now were it not for the inefficiency of the Council, which sent us the consultations in December. My political family is entirely in favour of this objective. It is your family which has the problems, but we intend to help you.
Secondly, I will mention the euro. We owe the success of the euro above all to our fellow citizens. We must acknowledge this, because we also criticise the fact that we are distant from the citizens, but on this occasion, ladies and gentlemen, on 1 January, they have moved ahead of us. For once we can say that it has also been a success for the Commission, which has been responsible for the operation, for President Prodi, who, when he was President of Ecofin, made it possible for Italy to join the euro together with the current President of the Republic, while the current government of that country partly chose, on I January, to denigrate the single currency. It has also been a success for Commissioner Pedro Solbes, who was the Spanish Minister for the Economy in December 1995.
Because, ladies and gentlemen, both the euro and Economic and Monetary Union were born in Madrid.
Mr President, I imagine that all this commotion will not be counted as part of my speaking time.
Let us hope that this Spanish Presidency can match up to previous presidencies. The euro is also a success for the European Central Bank, for the financial institutions, for the hundreds of thousands of anonymous citizens who went to work on 1 January, and we must recognise that it has also been a success for Pierre Werner, for Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, for Helmut Schmidt, for François Mitterrand, for Helmut Kohl, for Ruud Lubbers, for Giulio Andreotti, for John Major, for Felipe González and also for Jacques Santer, as President of the Commission. I think it is right to acknowledge this.
The challenge now is to create an Economic Union which matches Monetary Union – as the President of the Commission pointed out – and also develop the Lisbon strategy, which in our opinion means sustainable development, more social cohesion, more full employment, more competitiveness. In this regard, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, I would draw your attention to the European Parliament’s resolution on services of general interest, which is very explicit. It is not sufficient to privatise services without liberalising, because that simply means replacing public monopolies with private ones. There must be rules to protect citizens and consumers. Look what has happened with Enron and what your government had to do about the Christmas power cuts, when it asked for the illuminations to be postponed by two hours."@en1
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