Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-08-Speech-3-054"
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"en.20031008.7.3-054"2
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"Mr President, the focus at the forthcoming summit of European Union leaders will primarily be an economic one. Coming so soon after the Rome Council meeting, it is in itself a clear indication by our leaders of their intent to put in place measures to reinvigorate the European economy. The European economy needs to be reinvigorated. This year growth has been less than 1%, which by any standards is an exceptionally poor performance.
Whilst economic fundamentals remain basically sound, growth within the European Union is clearly sluggish and investor and consumer confidence is very low. We must really answer the question as to what we must do to turn around this economic situation. The bottom line, as a number of colleagues have said here this afternoon, is that now is the time for decisive action to be taken. The Lisbon Strategy must be implemented in its entirety across all its strands. The European Union must become the strongest knowledge-based economy in the world. This is imperative if we are to remain competitive and attract direct foreign investment into our community. This means that we must take full advantage of the new and evolving information technologies that are coming on stream. Equally, the benefit of new technologies must be spread to all regions in Europe and to both urban and rural areas.
European Union leaders must work towards completing all outstanding components of the EU financial services action plan, as well as creating a level playing field for mergers and company take-overs.
Completing a fully-effective internal market requires the progressive creation of an integrated market for gas and electricity to enhance security of supply in Europe. European leaders must look to promote initiatives which guarantee that pension payments can be made in the future for an ageing population.
Notwithstanding the economic nature of this summit, it would be very hard for European Union leaders to ignore the escalating violence in the Middle East, and nor, indeed, should they. I believe that the European Union has a role to play in brokering a ceasefire between the various factions in the Middle East and I would strongly urge the Italian Government, Commissioner Patten and the High Representative, Mr Solana, to continue to remain actively involved in the Middle East at this critical juncture.
Finally, discussions will undoubtedly take place on the margins of the summit with regard to the provisions of the new European Union Treaty. It appears that negotiations in this respect started quite well at the weekend and we wish the Italian presidency every success in giving us, at the end of the day, a package that will be for the benefit of the people of Europe."@en1
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