Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-20-Speech-3-015"
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". – Mr President, honourable Members. Today's sitting winds up two very special days here in Strasbourg. Yesterday we discussed enlargement and I confess the occasion was moving and gratifying. Today, in the presence of the full Commission I am here to present our legislative and work programme for the coming year.
In 2003 the Commission will send Parliament and the Council regular monthly updates of its operational planning. This will take the form of a three-monthly rolling programme giving ample information on proposals adopted.
The public will be able to follow all stages of the dialogue step by step since the documents forwarded will be accessible via our web pages.
President
Better coordination between the institutions, enhanced planning of legislative work and more information for the public are tangible proof of our determination to make the EU institutions more efficient and to give them a sounder democratic basis.
This shows we are putting into practice the guidelines set out in last year's White Paper on European Governance. These are not just technical innovations, but a vital step forward in the development of our integration project.
***
Honourable Members
As I said yesterday, our main challenge for the coming year will be enlargement once more. So it is naturally our top priority for 2003.
The priorities identified by the Commission are:
· an enlarged EU
This year the programme bears witness to a new method. In line with our agreement of last January, the main EU institutions have set up a structured political dialogue.
· stability and security, and
· a sustainable and inclusive economy.
These priorities have already been endorsed by the Council and this Assembly. I will now look at how the Commission intends implementing them next year.
***
We spoke extensively of enlargement yesterday. Today I simply want to stress the Commission's commitment to ensure that all parties involved in the process are capable of meeting their responsibilities from day one of accession.
The candidate countries must have carried over into national law and be actually implementing the body of Community legislation. This process has been going on for years now and it has produced excellent results, but the final phase needs to be monitored with special care.
For our part, I must stress how urgent it is to overhaul the EU's architecture so it can meet the challenges of 2004. There is a qualitative dimension to enlargement that must not be underestimated.
I rely on the wisdom of the Convention that is still in progress and on the Intergovernmental Conference that will be turning its recommendations into a genuine constitutional text for the EU.
***
The Commission's two other priorities for 2003 have a close link with enlargement.
Over the last few months, all Members of the Commission have been available to discuss the Commission's priorities in their areas of responsibility before the relevant parliamentary committees.
The goal of ensuring stability and security throughout the EU is at the forefront of the Commission's concerns because the harmonious and peaceful coexistence of our people depends on this.
Harmony can only be achieved by balancing the fight against terrorism and crime with full respect for the freedoms and rights that are fundamental to our political and social model. And this will allow the EU to develop an area of freedom, security and justice.
We must also step up surveillance of our external borders. This calls for special preparations on the part of the future Member States, which will have to control most of the EU's land borders.
We also need to consolidate our policies on migration flows, asylum rights and the integration of immigrants who come in legally. The need to integrate legal immigrants into our societies must be put back at the centre of our immigration policy. After all, legal immigration boosts Europe's cultural and economic wealth.
At a time when the EU is both expanding and deciding on its future structure, it is crucial to give new impetus to our policy towards the EU’s closest neighbours. Each day I am more and more convinced that we need to develop a comprehensive strategy
the countries on the borders of the enlarged EU, stretching from Russia to the Mediterranean.
The EU's definitive borders have recently become the centre of debate. Here I believe we must break with the reasoning that contrasts the countries on the inside with those on the outside. I realise this is not easy, but we need to work out and propose a new kind of partnership that makes use of all the instruments available.
We must not see our borders as a wall. But nor must we see them as rolling forward inexorably.
Our neighbourhood policy needs to be spelled out. We must come up to our neighbours' legitimate expectations, and our response must be based on cooperation. At the same time, we must press ahead with our political project for Europe.
Lastly, the Commission intends playing its full role on the international scene. In line with our traditional commitments, next year too we will work to consolidate stability in the Balkans. And we will spare no effort in the search to create new conditions that can finally bring peace to the Middle East.
***
I would emphasise that the Commission sets much store by Parliament’s valuable contribution to this process.
The third major priority for the coming year is economic policy.
In the current economic climate, people are rightly asking what the EU will do to help restore growth and create jobs.
Let us not forget that we must meet our objectives of sustainable economic prosperity and social inclusion.
A few weeks ago, we discussed the coordination of economic policy and the Stability and Growth Pact in this house.
In the next few days we will be putting forward proposals for improving the application of the Pact and for more coordinated management of budgetary policies within Economic and Monetary Union.
The basic aim is to put public finances on a sounder and more sustainable footing. This involves ensuring that the rules are implemented both intelligently and with authority so as to foster growth and employment.
These proposals form part of a more general strategy to strengthen economic policy coordination and governance. To that end, in 2003 we will improve the Commission's work of assessment and monitoring and its proactive role.
This will usher in a more flexible approach that can draw all our procedures together within a single coordination cycle. This will bring better synchronisation of the Spring Report on progress under the Lisbon Strategy with the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines and the Employment Guidelines.
2003 will mark the tenth anniversary of the Single Market. We will report on the achievements and benefits it has brought EU citizens and consumers. But we must not forget that, though it represents a huge step forward, in some sectors the work is not over.
I am thinking of services and particularly of financial services. 2003 is also the deadline we have set for the completion of the internal market for risk capital and securities.
This being the first year of application, there is of course room for improvement. This year's experience will help us improve in the future. But the results so far are very encouraging.
These reforms will pave the way for easier financing of innovation, on which sustained growth and job creation rests in our economies. Innovation and investment in human resources and technology will feature high in the Commission's Spring Report next year.
Externally, the goal is to control and manage the process of globalisation so the largest possible number enjoy its benefits.
The European integration project is viewed by all as the sole example of democratic management of globalisation. Our experience is unique and we must ensure the poorest regions of the planet in particular can draw on it.
Next year there is an important engagement scheduled for the Doha Development Agenda. In September the World Trade Organisation will be holding its ministerial-level meeting in Cancún. Both there and elsewhere, the Commission will ensure that the commitments entered into at Kyoto, Monterrey and Johannesburg are made good.
This means we must not disappoint the confidence the world has in us. And that means delivering in terms of intelligent management of the environment, trade and development.
***
Everything I have said today is a clear illustration that the economic, social and environmental threads of our policies are all intertwined both in planning and in execution.
This development of our philosophy and approach was endorsed and given impetus by the conclusions of the Seville European Council last June.
The legislative and work programme I am presenting today therefore represents a major step towards better European governance.
From next year on, the Commission will begin preliminary analyses of subsidiarity and proportionality in respect of around 40 selected proposals and will examine their economic, social and environmental impact. Such analyses will streamline and replace the Commission's current impact-assessment instruments.
Let me mention the major innovations of the working method the Commission followed this year.
This approach needs to be applied pragmatically and progressively. From 2004 on, the method will be fully operational. It will then form an integral part of the whole legislative process, starting with the Annual Policy Strategy we will present in February and the legislative and the work programme to follow.
***
Honourable Members
This Work Programme seeks to bring more continuity and coherence to our political action through ever-closer cooperation between Parliament, the Council and the Commission.
The discussions that led up to it confirm the soundness of the Community method. It gives the system the practical impact and political perspective the EU needs to achieve its goals.
The European integration project is now around half a century old. In historical terms it is still in its infancy. Each passing year is critical and may mark it enduringly.
We are all aware of this, and yet 2003 will be quite special. To me the coming year will be crucial for Europe's history.
At a time when we are all thinking actively about the EU's future, it is vital to bear in mind the full potential the EU could develop so we can see where reforms are really needed.
Let me close by calling on you all to think about that. May that thought serve to inspire and guide us, to bring us all closer together, and to heighten our awareness of the great responsibility we bear.
Thank you.
First, this Work Programme must be seen as a big step towards a more highly integrated and coherent planning process for the EU as a whole. So it is also intended as an important contribution to the Council’s first annual operating programme as decided at the Seville European Council.
For the first time the programme sets out not only our new proposals but also the main proposals already adopted by the Commission and still to be considered by the Council. This will allow Parliament to take part too in planning this vital aspect of legislative work. The Commission hopes that the three main institutions can reach an agreement on the interinstitutional dimension of this planning process by the end of the year.
Secondly, our new working method is not based solely on interinstitutional dialogue but also on a constant exchange of information during the operational phase and on more transparency for the public."@en1
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