Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-02-Speech-3-005"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20030702.1.3-005"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, as one of the founding countries, Italy has a long experience of remaining true to the spirit and the letter of the Treaties, which, within the space of a few decades, have enabled us to develop peacefully one of the most remarkable political and institutional experiments in the history of mankind. Italy is therefore keenly aware of the moral and intellectual responsibility and honour of presiding over the Union in this constituent period, when we need to hold on firmly to the lessons of the past in order to build the future, to deal with new developments and seize opportunities that were previously unimaginable, and to overcome differences by finding new solutions, which in turn will enrich our shared project.
The European Parliament will be involved in the work of the Conference in the most appropriate manner. I call upon the European Council to involve the President of the European Parliament in the work of the Prime Ministers and Heads of Government on a permanent basis.
I call upon the General Affairs Council to involve the representatives of the European Parliament in their work on a permanent basis. The proceedings will be conducted at a senior political level in order to avoid the impetus provided by the Convention getting bogged down in detailed diplomatic negotiations, as has happened in earlier Intergovernmental Conferences. With this in mind, I undertake to return here to address you after the opening of the Intergovernmental Conference and the day after the December European Council, so that we can review together what has been achieved.
The goal is to enable the future Constitutional Treaty to be signed sometime between 1 May 2004 (the date on which the ten new Member States will officially join the Union) and the elections in June 2004 for the next Parliamentary term. Any extension of the negotiations beyond those dates would mean dissipating the precious store of constitutional wisdom developed by the Convention; it would also involve asking European voters to elect their Parliament without knowing the institutional shape of the future Union.
I can, moreover, only rejoice that, for appreciable reasons of historical and symbolic continuity with the original Treaties of 1957, it has been agreed that the final signing of the Constitutional Treaty is to take place in Rome. We are honoured by this prospect and will do everything possible to ensure that the Member States' representatives are welcomed in a manner worthy of the occasion and, of course, of our traditions of hospitality.
Mr President, President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, constitutional reform is certainly a top priority for the future of European integration, but the Union must also be able to meet its citizens' legitimate day-to-day expectations. Europe must increasingly live up to its role of creating economic growth and prosperity. Here, we are on solid ground: the euro is an element of stability for the economies of the Member States which have chosen to support monetary union, and the Lisbon Strategy mapped out a process of convergence to increase European competitiveness. However, we cannot overlook the persistent flaws of our economic structures, evidence of which lies in the lower-than-forecast growth rates.
On the basis of the annual operating programme presented jointly with the Greek Presidency at the beginning of 2003, the Italian Presidency has set out a number of specific initiatives. The modernisation of agriculture, environmental protection, consumer protection and food safety are essential requirements for our citizens; in these areas Italy will steer work towards the goals identified by earlier Presidencies.
I will therefore confine myself here and now to three points which we feel are crucial for Europe's competitiveness. The first point is the need to provide more effective support for the economy by increasing public and private investment with the cooperation of the European financial institutions, especially the EIB. We consider that such a strategy should be based especially on boosting the policy of major Trans-European infrastructure networks. If the internal market is to work efficiently in the enlarged Union, it will require greater mobility of goods and services and a more efficient transport network. The need here is to square the legitimate requirements of monetary stability and financial rigour – which must not be called into question in any way – with the need to stimulate economic growth more powerfully through investment in research and technological innovation as well as infrastructure, for we firmly believe that the European economy's most important resource is its human capital.
The second priority is discussion of the sustainability of the European pension and welfare systems. Intergenerational solidarity and the adaptation of existing schemes to the reality of a progressively ageing society are challenges that we can no longer shy away from. Bearing in mind that situations differ from Member State to Member State, we must investigate policies to increase the level of employment among older workers and to reduce the trend towards early retirement.
With the full accession of new Member States and the attendant redefining of our identity, it is time to recognise the value of the art of negotiation. Europe as we know it, as built by its governing classes, is the product of enormous determination and brilliant intuition, which have given a spirit and language to shared values and feelings; these have brought together and revitalised the separate strands of national history, traditions and culture.
Our third and last point is the need to modernise the labour markets and promote entrepreneurship, particularly where small and medium-sized enterprises are concerned. In this field, too, the opportunities offered by the great internal market which is being extended to include the ten new Members will elude the EU Member States unless they adopt a coordinated approach.
These strategies can be implemented through dialogue between the social partners. Indeed, the European model is based on a market economy which seeks to strike a balance between free enterprise and the claims of cohesion and solidarity. In this connection, there can be no neglecting that more vulnerable, silent section of Europe's population, whom legislative inertia all too often prevents from taking a leading role but whose civil and moral contribution remains invaluable. I am referring to the 38 million European citizens with disabilities. The European Union has proclaimed 2003 the 'European Year of People with Disabilities'. In addition to the awareness-raising and information events and campaigns already organised, the Italian Presidency will endeavour to lay the foundations for legislative action to combat discrimination, for an instrument to protect people with disabilities in all aspects of daily life and give them a future of hope.
Mr President, President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, the European Union also contributes to international stability, and its responsibility in this respect starts at its immediate borders and depends on its capacity to be open to increasingly advanced forms of cooperation with neighbouring countries. In this case too, the Italian Presidency intends to carry on the work of previous presidencies.
During the current period between the signing and the entry into force of the Accession Treaties, we shall seek to ensure that the 10 new Member States participate fully in the work of the Council, making it easier for them to be fully integrated into the Union's institutional mechanisms. At the same time, we shall attempt to establish by
December a roadmap for Bulgaria and Romania which paves the way for the accession of both countries by
2007. We shall continue the pre-accession strategy
Turkey on the basis of the conditions established at the Copenhagen European Council last December. We know that the decision on the date for opening negotiations will not be taken until the end of next year, but, with this in mind, we consider it all the more advisable that the Union should actively support the reform process already initiated by the current Turkish Government. We shall continue to emphasise the European prospects of the countries of the Western Balkans, in line with the Zagreb Process. The agenda we agreed upon at Thessaloniki represents a further step forward. In retrospect, analysing the European Union's role in the Balkans, we can be proud of ourselves. If we compare the current situation to the situation 10 years ago, we can see that intervention by Europe and the United States made it possible to bring to an end the bloody conflicts of the former Yugoslavia, the last major European civil war, and we hope that this will also prove to be the last time that European blood is shed on European soil.
We believe it is now time to move on from the present phase of association and stabilisation agreements to a more integrated strategy, with a view to strengthening our relationship with the countries of the region. We are aware of the complexity of this approach, but we also know that Europe is offering the only prospects able to provide the governments of those countries with an effective incentive to proceeding without delay along the path of reform, modernisation, the free market and the rule of law.
The Italian Presidency sees the invitation from the Commission, supported by the Member States, to encourage increasingly close relations with the areas closest to us to bring about what we have labelled 'Wider Europe', in a very positive light. We shall therefore seek to strengthen our relations with Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. We shall likewise seek to consolidate relations with the Russian Federation particularly strongly through increasingly close dialogue and specific measures that are tangible confirmation of Russia's desire to belong to the political, economic, social and cultural fabric of Europe and the West.
We consider that the focus on Eastern Europe after the collapse of communism should now be mirrored by equal interest in the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue; this dialogue is crucial for relations between the West and the Islamic world, an issue we feel to be as important today as Eastern Europe has been in the past. Our aim is to establish a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area, already launched by the Barcelona Conference. The economic and social development of the southern area of the Mediterranean is essential to world stability, in view of the culture, politics and demographics of the southern Mediterranean. The integration of Europe's economy with that of the Arab countries is a major challenge of our time and is the key to peace and security in this area and in Europe as a whole.
We shall therefore cultivate the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue, to which we shall devote a large number of economic, cultural and social initiatives – including a Foundation for Dialogue between Cultures and Civilisations – and we shall cultivate the project to transform the financial facility currently operating within the EIB into an autonomous body, in other words a genuine Mediterranean Bank.
On the basis of the decisions adopted by the Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conferences in Valencia and Crete and approved by the Thessaloniki European Council, the Italian Presidency endorses the wish expressed by the European Parliament and the national Parliaments to see a Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly established during this Presidency as a mark of a constant commitment to dialogue between Europe and the countries of the Mediterranean seaboard.
The Europe of today is great: it owes its greatness to its achievements, to its potential, to its proud contribution to peace and international law, but it owes its particular greatness to the specific technical expertise which it has brought to bear, overcoming every crisis, clash of interests and difference in vision by applying a common method, common rules and a common approach to adjusting both method and rules to the realities of a changing world.
Mr President, President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, establishing conditions for international security is now a key task for the countries which share a set of universal values based on freedom, democracy and peace. This is the main area in which fundamental transatlantic relations and the partnership between Europe and the United States must now be reinvigorated. We wish to confirm our conviction that there is no incompatibility between a strong European undertaking and equally strong transatlantic solidarity. Mindful of this, we will strive to restore depth and dynamism to the relationship between the Union and the United States, which are also vital if Europe is to have greater authority on the world stage. The establishment of a solid, balanced transatlantic relationship also depends on a substantial European undertaking in the field of defence, in line with the NATO framework.
The fight against terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and support for the promotion of democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms are specific areas in which to test our ability to build a solid relationship of cooperation between the two shores of the Atlantic. We are thinking in this particular instance of the need to establish a democratic civil fabric in the reconstruction of Iraq and support for the peace process in the Middle East.
As regards the Middle East, we are quite aware that the situation is extremely complex. Our Presidency, together with the United States, the Russian Federation and the United Nations, will work in support of the roadmap towards the establishment of time limits and procedures for launching an international peace conference. My country has offered to hold the conference in Sicily. There are at least two lines of action that we intend to promote: firstly, restoring a relationship of greater trust with Israel with a view to broader and more structured mutual cooperation, and, secondly, implementing the plan – already launched by Italy at European Councils and G8 Summits – for rebuilding the Palestinian economy, which could act as a tangible, effective incentive in negotiations between the parties.
Mr President, President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, in the interests of brevity, I cannot list all the Union's responsibilities on the world stage, but I feel bound to mention the economic, cultural, civil and, I would venture, spiritual ties that link Europe with Latin America, a region currently experiencing a period of change which Europe hopes will generate freedom and justice. The Latin American States have asked us to open up our trade frontiers. The success of Latin America is that of the other America, linked to Europe in a different but no less significant fashion than North America.
I also wish to say that we shall work to strengthen our existing ties with Africa, to which we are bound through its unhappy history, with Asia, with the regional organisations and with the United Nations system to move forward together on the great challenges of the fight against poverty and disease, environmental protection and conflict prevention. We will also focus on the balanced development of international trade as a source of greater well-being and reduction of inequalities – the subject of the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference in Cancun next September.
Mr President, President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, the citizens of Europe want democratic, transparent institutions, a prosperous economy and a free society, but also an area of freedom and security. At Tampere, Seville and, most recently, at Thessaloniki, the European Council recognised the need to enhance Europe's capacity to combat transnational organised crime, illegal immigration and related trafficking, through more effective controls at the Union's external borders. We will endeavour to work on these points, focusing on the mobilisation of adequate financial resources, the gradual implementation of a common readmission policy and the integrated management of external borders. Above all, however, we will emphasise the need to include illegal immigration issues in relations between the Union and the countries of origin and transit of migration flows. We must introduce effective forms of cooperation with some of our neighbours, especially in the Mediterranean and the Balkans, in the field of control and management of migration flows. Our legitimate request for more effective cooperation from these countries in endeavours to prevent illegal immigration will be matched by willingness on our part to integrate citizens of third countries legally resident on Union territory. As well as continuing legislative work on asylum and visas, we consider it a priority to improve the operation of all the Union's operating mechanisms for combating crime, starting with the strengthening of Europol.
Mr President, President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, it is clear from my remarks just how sensitive and complex the challenges facing the European Union are, challenges to which our Presidency will endeavour to help find a solution in the limited time available, in a spirit of humility and service and in the full, firm knowledge that the security and prosperity of our future will depend increasingly on the process of European integration which has guaranteed us peace, freedom, security and well-being for half a century now. The Europe of today is no longer the airy kite capable of playing the winds of history that it was at the time of the Treaty of Rome. Our Union has become much stouter and is weighed down with responsibilities and duties towards its partners and the rest of the world. My hope is that, during the Italian Presidency and looking onwards to the Irish Presidency, we shall succeed, with the cooperation of all those involved and with the particular help of the new Member States, in restoring to our institutional giant something of its lightness and its original energy.
We all know that there is sometimes a price to be paid for negotiation and that it may be high. If it is not driven by the enthusiasm of shared goals, negotiation can look very much like bureaucratic paralysis, a long and extenuating process of avoiding problems and procrastination. The Italian Parliament, which has never feared the truth, has been acutely aware of the bouts of fatigue and the tendency to sell Europe short which have at times characterised our common European endeavour, and it has condemned those tendencies with frank, pro-European zeal. With the self-confidence born of long experience and the humility needed to tackle crucial political issues, Italy will therefore do everything in its power and everything it feels is necessary to provide Parliament, the Commission and the governments of the European Council with the environment most conducive to taking informed, calm and responsible political decisions on our future. The purpose of negotiation is, indeed, to enable decisions to be taken on substance, and the measure of our success in settling our differences will be whether it enables us to make a great leap forwards and to give our gradually integrating economies, our cultures, our foreign policy and our defence policy a new and efficient institutional shape.
A great Europe needs great institutions. If the world calls for Europe to act authoritatively in tackling today's major challenges – the fight against terrorism, the reduction of inequalities and imbalances, world economic recovery – it is our duty to respond with a Union which can act decisively and therefore exert influence, a Union which can take resolute, clear decisions on the basis of a clear grasp of the common interest and commonly held convictions which are above any form of particularism. This Union, which we have decided to build together, whose shape has also been discussed during the splendid work of the Convention chaired by Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and benefiting from the vigorous contribution of the Greek Presidency and representatives of the Commission, the European Parliament and the national Parliaments, can only be founded on the framework of values and historical experience that, for over half a century, has bound us to that other great exponent of modern liberal democracy, the United States, co-founder with us of the Atlantic Alliance. If this web of different partnerships – at a different level of political integration – is again to live up to its ambitions and its civilising achievements, for the sake of peace and world security, relations between States must cease to be conducted in monologues and, instead, we must seek to reinstate open, genuine, honest dialogue.
Europe can be cured of its Hamlet syndrome and decide to become a wholehearted, active player on the world stage; it can acquire the diplomatic, economic and military means to perform that role convincingly, without jeopardising its autonomy, its roots or the great freedom-giving structures defended over the years within the framework of its Western alliances. As we found at the recent Summit in Thessaloniki, there is deep, shared understanding of this, set out in the very valuable document coordinated by the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, which seeks, in a new strategic vision, to overcome the differences that have emerged over recent months with regard to the tragic crisis in Iraq and developments in the crucial issue of the Middle East.
Italy knows that it is not alone in venturing once more to wager on successful negotiation in order to move the situation forward. In the European Parliament, under its President, Pat Cox, and in the political groups with which we had an enjoyable, valuable meeting in Rome, we feel we have an attentive, patient partner but one which would not fail to hold us to account for our mistakes. In the Commission and its President, Romano Prodi, we see the essential link ensuring continuity in the administration and day-to-day coordination of our institutional system. The European Council, in both the reinvigoration of the plan for growth, based on large-scale investment in civil infrastructure, and the great constitutional opportunity presented by the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference, will be the forum in which this six-month Union Presidency, which falls to Italy, will seek to define a bold but not reckless agreement on the major issues of institutional balance, the extension of qualified majority voting, the limits of the common foreign and security policy and the European area of justice.
We cannot overlook the fact that Member States' views on some of these questions still differ. The Italian Presidency will do its utmost to bring about convergence of these positions although it is fully aware that the debate on the Convention's draft Constitutional Treaty cannot be completely reopened. The Intergovernmental Conference will therefore have to focus its efforts on the genuine points of contention still outstanding. This ground plan has also dictated the Presidency's goal of adhering to the timetable suggested by the Thessaloniki European Council. Thus, we will open the Intergovernmental Conference in October and keep the proceedings to a tight schedule with a view to reaching agreement by December."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples