Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-27-Speech-3-059"
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".
Mr President, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, I will do my best to be very brief, not least because I have already made one speech today in this House and because Mr Rato y Figaredo has already given a detailed explanation of events as regards Lisbon. With any luck, this will also mean that
I do not need the Presidential glass of water.
Secondly, the strength of the Lisbon strategy lies in the fact that the measures it contains reinforce one another. Each is important in itself, but together they form the recipe for long-term success.
Thirdly, the Barcelona strategy must contain a response to the present economic situation and an assessment of the progress made by the different countries in implementing their various policies, so that we can see which priorities need to be focused on in the coming 12 months. We have to act and invest today to ensure growth and employment throughout the rest of the decade. We will therefore concentrate on employment, economic reform and investing in knowledge, as has already been indicated.
The fourth objective for Barcelona is to take stock of the progress made in the area of sustainable development. We must ensure that sustainable development is at the basis of certain specific decisions we have to take, not least, for instance, when it comes to opening up the energy markets and restructuring the transport sector. Sustainability can also generate growth and create jobs in areas such as clean technologies. This, of course, means that we must provide incentives and resources for this sector.
Lastly, we expect the European Council to firmly endorse the importance of life sciences and biotechnology: this is an area in which there is no reason why Europe should not lead the world. We have a pool of scientists in both the Member States and the enlargement countries who, with the proper organisation, will soon be able to assume this leading role.
We also – and this is my last point – need to examine the impact of our policies on the wider world, and I expect the European Council to deliver a major contribution towards preparing for the Johannesburg Summit.
I will end by touching on another subject which will be addressed indirectly but quite extensively at Barcelona, and that is how we should organise our work in the light of the impending enlargement. Indeed, we must launch a dialogue with the candidate countries to identify what they themselves can do to pursue the Lisbon agenda and priorities – with help from the Community, of course. In other words, although the decisions of this summit will, in theory, concern the Member States alone, in practice they will concern the new countries too. We must therefore start off along this common path, this walk together, at Barcelona.
To this end, the candidate countries will be taking part in a European Council working session, during which the discussion will focus on their views on the Lisbon strategy and its implementation. As of 2003, the candidate countries will be included in the structural indicators the Commission uses to assess progress on the Lisbon strategy. They must therefore be actively involved in the Lisbon objectives and working methods. Our strategy must be a help, not an obstacle, to their accession.
Mr President, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, I am confident that the Barcelona European Council will be the first of the key milestones before us this year on the road to successful implementation of the Lisbon strategy. Only thus will we be able to build properly on the enthusiasm and heightened public demand for more Europe that we have witnessed at first hand in recent weeks. It is my genuine hope that Barcelona will be a success for the Spanish Presidency but that it will, above all, be a success for the European citizens. A success for the whole of Europe.
The European Council in Barcelona will be the first Council since the euro notes and coins were introduced. The euro has been a great success, it has been welcomed with great enthusiasm and now we must push ahead with related tasks, including the completion of the Lisbon process. This decisive stage which we will be undertaking at Barcelona will take place in a totally different economic climate, for the optimism of Lisbon is no longer present, but the global economic slowdown makes it even more necessary that we complete this strategy. Barcelona will therefore be a milestone along that road.
As Mr Rato y Figaredo said, a lot has already been achieved in these first two years, and my genuine thanks go to Parliament for, especially in recent months, we have worked together in perfect harmony and have achieved genuine successes in the fields of telecommunications and financial services and in many social programmes.
A great deal remains to be done, however: I am thinking of the Community patent, the Galileo project, which seems to have received fresh impetus in the last few hours – and we truly hope that it will be able to make progress – and the new legal framework for public procurement. If we take these decisions, we will certainly be giving a major boost to European development.
Of course, there are also many areas of concern: the citizens are wondering whether Europe will have the courage to adopt these measures which are necessary for long-term development, whether it will have the courage to take further steps towards the goal of a more competitive, inclusive society. When I have conversations with citizens and businesses, I hear them expressing grave concerns, for they do not yet see the tangible effects even of the decisions we have already taken, and this is understandable in that we have completed the initial phase of these political decisions but the work is not yet finished. Therefore, it is now up to the Council and to Parliament too, to adopt, without delay, all the legislation, programmes and policies which will complete the Lisbon strategy. We will then, at last, be able to move on to the final stage – the stage of practical implementation – and then the citizens too will understand what we are doing.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Spring European Council has become a regular event, and this is another good innovation. In spring, we take stock of the economic policies. It is a practical demonstration of the interinstitutional dialogue, and I, like Mr Rato y Figaredo, hope that the Barcelona Summit will deliver tangible progress in terms of stimulating reform, job creation, strengthening cohesion and environmental improvements. And it is precisely the Council which will have to set the priorities in these matters.
Barcelona’s first task must be to confirm the firm commitment to macroeconomic stability based on sound public finances and controlled inflation. We took this line when responding to the questions posed just now and it applies in this context too. This is the basis we need for lasting success, and we will not have wasted the benefits of our hard work or the sacrifices many countries have made in order to be able to enter the eurozone.
At Barcelona – and this is a sensitive but, I would say, fundamental point of the Commission’s proposals – we will also have to coordinate economic policies more closely, at least within the eurozone. We cannot be content with coordinating monetary policy: quite the opposite, the coordination of monetary policy and the single currency make it imperative that we coordinate macroeconomic policies too; therefore, from this moment onwards, there must be greater transparency, more timely provision of information to the Commission and the other countries and common rules of conduct in the field of monetary policy."@en1
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