Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-14-Speech-2-143"
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"en.20030114.5.2-143"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, it is to you, Mr President of the Council, that I wish to express my group's emphatic support for your initiative towards resolving the hostilities with Iraq by diplomatic means. There must be no war with Iraq. The public do not want one, and this is where the EU – as many Members of this House have said, and this is something I want to endorse – must put all its political weight into the balance, and it must be united in doing so.
Statements, such as that made by the German ambassador to the UN, to the effect that no second resolution by the Security Council would be needed to give legitimacy to an attack on Iraq by the USA, are counter-productive. Fortunately, the Greek Presidency of the Council is taking the opposite line. You have our entire support in your efforts to prevent war, in the teeth of the Bush administration's declared intentions.
That employment, economic, and social policies rank high on the Greek agenda is another thing that earns our high regard, but, especially in view of the spring summit, what matters is what we do about them. The social pillar does indeed need to be strengthened to a perceptible degree, the EU must give its attention to the public's concerns and needs, and, above all else, press on with effective measures to counter mass unemployment and social exclusion within its borders. Most of all, the Member States must be willing to counteract the looming economic crisis in Europe. It is willingness to reform the Stability Pact that we regard as the litmus test in this regard. Be bold enough to do it! Let public investment at last be removed from the Stability Pact's calculation basis, preventing a socially irresponsible policy of cutting back until there is nothing left from making a difficult economic situation even worse, or even – as President Prodi has just warned us – leaving education utterly unable to compete.
In conclusion, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, I wish to endorse your objective of speeding up the Convention's reforming work. This is another area where the public interest demands that tangible progress be made, especially towards creating social Europe. My plea to you, and to your foreign minister as a new member of the Convention, is that you should insist on definite results in this issue in particular."@en1
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