Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-02-Speech-3-054"
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"en.20030702.1.3-054"2
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Mr President, I should like to begin by thanking Mr Poettering for his words of support, encouragement and best wishes, and all the Members of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats who, in their speeches, have made demands of us on one point or another but who have shown us a token of the support that they will give us in these busy months to come. I also thank the Chairman of the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reformist Party and extend my thanks to the Chairman of the Group of the Party of European Socialists, Mr Barón Crespo, who expressed his critical demands with great courtesy and also a subtle sense of humour. I should like to tell him that I am still convinced that the great Europe of the future, if it genuinely wants to be a leader in world politics able to sit at a table on equal terms with the United States, will have to be a great Europe that can also include Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Israel, the Russian Federation and its military strength. This is certainly a vision that the Prime Minister of Italy has, and one that he can, of course, express quite freely when speaking for himself and for his government, but when the Prime Minister becomes the President-in-Office of the European Council he has to adhere to the prevailing opinion within the European Council, and it is therefore clear that what he says and the activities to which he must devote himself have of necessity to reflect the mandate he is given by his fellow members of the Council.
I should also like to reply to Mr Pannella, who made a point about the personal line that I have consistently followed, and which I still believe in, with regard to Israel – which I mentioned a moment ago – and Turkey. I must tell him as well that, in the coming six months, I must expound the line of the European Council; after that I shall have the opportunity, within the European Council, to uphold these views of mine, which are, of course, not views for the next six months or that can be realised in one term of office but visions that will require much longer to come to fruition. I can reassure him, however, as regards the moratorium on the death penalty. I have always upheld the need for this intervention, and I shall therefore certainly take this demand to the United Nations Assembly in September as a demand from the European Parliament too.
Another thing that has been ascribed to me is subservience to the United States. I have recalled several times that I see Europe as a joint protagonist in maintaining security and peace, for the development of well-being throughout the world, but to do this Europe must not be just an economic giant but an economic giant that can also find a way to express itself with a single voice on foreign policy, and one that can also invest more in its military forces. No diplomacy, no policy in history has ever been successful without the support of adequate military strength. With regard to the United States, I think we should be friends of the United States, but I do not believe there has been anything in the Italian Government’s conduct that could be seen as subservience. I repeatedly tried to dissuade the person who has been mentioned here as being my friend, President George Bush, from launching a military initiative in Iraq. I did not succeed, and then I insisted – even signing that letter with seven other European Union Member States, to which 10 other countries were then added, including, first and foremost, some of the new Members of the European Union – that one evil, the war in Iraq, should not be followed by other evils, and particularly that it should not be followed by the discrediting of the United Nations, which I regret to say did happen since it was shown to be impotent, or by the crisis in transatlantic relations, which did happen; or by the final evil, which is the division among the countries of Europe, something which did happen and which we are all endeavouring to put right and overcome together.
Regarding the conflict of interests which many have mentioned: well, perhaps you are not aware that, in Italy, the newspapers and the television channels that still belong to my group and my family, especially, are among our strongest critics. Why? Clearly, you have not experienced Italy’s sunshine; you have never been to Italy and you have never tuned into an Italian television channel. You ought to know – and yet many of you have a background in journalism – that the greatest concern of all journalists is to appear independent to their colleagues. This independence leads them to be constantly critical towards the one they consider the boss. If this is the kind of democracy you mean to use to silence the President-in-Office of the European Council, I can tell you that you should come to Italy as tourists, because you look like democracy tourists here.
I was leader of the opposition in Italy for six years, so these speeches do not frighten me: I am used to being contradicted. On immigration, I should like to remind you that, if there is one country that is rooted in Christianity, a generous country, open to those who have the least and to those who suffer, I am proud to say that this country is mine, Italy. Let us not, therefore, confuse the war we must all wage together against the traffickers of slaves, the new slave trade, with the welcome we must give to those who come to improve their lives on the continent of Europe. We give them this welcome, and we give it generously. We want to fight this new form of slavery which is emerging through numerous international organisations: no more than that, and there is nothing in that which might cast doubt on Italy’s generosity.
Regarding the environment, perhaps the Greens are not aware that Mr Berlusconi’s favourite hobby is to do with flowers, nature, gardens and parks. It has been practically my only hobby since football left me behind. If you read page 49 of our programme, Mrs Frassoni, you will find that we want to introduce high levels of environmental protection; our policy, over and above the way it is being misrepresented, is directed precisely towards greater protection of the environment, and we are the first to be puzzled by the fact that, all too often, the expansion of production and industry has been to the detriment of the environment. In relation to the implementation of the Kyoto protocol, here too we shall take steps to convince those who have not signed it to do so.
Finally, I should like to say to my adversaries, with a smile, that they should not make a tragedy out of our Presidency. when all is said and done, six months pass very quickly. To my friends, however, those who have encouraged us and will continue to encourage us, I should like to say that, with regard to a man’s past and the man himself, I believe the important thing is not just what he says – in politics, very often, one changes, or other people change, the things one says – but his record, what he has done. Well, I believe that there are only successes in my record and only good intentions behind my actions. Therefore, we shall also make these six months bear fruit and try to reach a conclusion that enables Europe to be a positive factor for world peace, security and prosperity. We shall apply ourselves to our work, Mr President, with humility, dedication and conviction; we shall apply ourselves to brokering a solution from the various, still widely differing positions of the different Member States, that will give us a stronger Europe, able to make decisions on the international stage; that will give us a Europe through the new Constitution, a Europe that is closer to its citizens. This is our hope; this is our undertaking; this is our goal.
I thank you again for your good wishes for our work, and I wish you all every success in your work. May you succeed in making all your heartfelt hopes reality. My best wishes to all of you and, once again, good luck with your work!
I also want to respond to that other witticism, that a dyed-in-the-wool liberal has at last adopted a doctrine that forms part of socialist thinking, that is, Keynesianism. I agree with you, sir, that one might find a Keynesian or Colbertian flavour in the request for European intervention through the EIB and the raising of private capital in order to realise major trans-European infrastructure, which were proposed as much as ten years ago by Mr Delors, but, you see, we are faced by a fact that nobody can deny. What has happened in the world since 11 September? There has been the war in Afghanistan, there has been the war in Iraq, but, above all, the world stock markets have crashed. This has caused a reduction in all the financial assets invested in shareholdings and has caused a critical cut in all their returns. If you used to have assets worth 100, you now have assets worth 35; if you used to get a return of 8 or 10% on your assets, you now get a return of 1%. This has led to a reduction in private-sector demand on the market for consumer goods and high-value consumer goods, and, therefore, when private-sector demand falls, when consumption falls, there is nothing one can do but call on public-sector demand to sustain the economy. This public-sector demand cannot come from individual Member States, because the individual states can no longer develop a monetary policy because there is the euro, they cannot change exchange rates, and they cannot create a development policy, for the simple reason that they have to keep within the Maastricht parameters. Thus, it is Europe alone that must, at last, create its own economic policy capability. Italy’s proposal is that Europe, through one of its institutions, the EIB, should raise those private capital funds that are on the market and can be had at low interest rates, in order to try to boost demand through transnational infrastructure works, through the need to invest in new military technology, and through investment in research and education. The fact that we are faced with an economic situation that has changed is the only justification for resorting to state investment and, in this case, European Union investment.
I shall also, if I may, answer that point you put to me when you said, ‘I hope Mr Berlusconi’s Italian flair for making laws just for specific cases that are, perhaps, somehow of close interest to him will not be extended to the European level.’ I should like to quote you some figures to remind you that my government, which is Italy’s fifty-seventh in 50 years and has the responsibility – and also the opportunity, seeing that it has a large majority in both sections of parliament – to work for five years, is putting 24 different reforms into practice. In fact, it inherited a country in which none of the previous governments, which were only able to work for less than five years on average, was, of course, able to do this. I remind you that my government has drafted a record three hundred and fifty bills and decree-laws, two hundred of which have already been passed by our majority in parliament. Therefore, while I do not admit you are right, I can say that those three bills were a response – using a democratic method, a parliamentary vote – to a person who takes advantage of their position as an officer of justice to use the courts to attack their political enemies; although I believe that this has happened, it has only happened in three cases out of 350: 1%, Mr Barón Crespo.
I confirm, however – God forgive you if you did not know – that we shall be keeping Members of Parliament and Parliament itself informed on the progress of our negotiation operation, which it will not be at all easy to complete in the short time available. We shall be using the time between now and about 15 October to contact the Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers of all the other 24 European Union Member States so that, at the opening of the Conference, we can already present some possible solutions on which everyone can agree.
I would, of course, also like to thank the other Members who have spoken – Mr Graham Watson, Mrs Monica Frassoni, Mr Francis Wurtz – for wishing me success in my work. I must, however, reply to them and to all those who have given an utterly distorted view of Italy that is far from the truth. I invite them to come and enjoy something that the Berlusconi government has clearly not succeeded in eliminating, which is Italy’s sunshine, its beauty, its 100 000 monuments and churches, our 3 500 museums, our 2 500 archaeological sites, the 40 000 historical houses in Italy, which we have not managed to destroy over the last two years. Mr Schultz, I know there is a producer in Italy who is making a film about Nazi concentration camps. I will suggest you for the role of guard. You would be perfect!
I shall conclude this diatribe by saying that my Social Democrat friends and colleagues should probably expand their acquaintances beyond the Italian Members they find here in Parliament and they should perhaps extend their reading beyond the far left newspapers, which have evidently shaped these convictions of theirs."@en1
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