Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-25-Speech-3-048"
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"en.20040225.5.3-048"2
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"Mr President, in January Liberals in this House welcomed the presidency's strong focus on the Lisbon Agenda. Your priorities for the Spring Summit have restated that commitment.
Europe is stuck in second gear. As America accelerates, as a resurgent Asia pulls into the passing lane, Europe is trailing behind. We must not let the recovery fool us. If Europe is picking up speed it has more to do with the slope of the road than with the state of our engine. As Commissioner Lamy said a week ago, we have oversold expectations of Lisbon and we have underinvested in results. Any sustained economic recovery in Europe has to be built on job creation. An export-led return to growth could conceal an American-style jobless recovery that will leave us no better off when the road levels out or when the next climb begins. More and better employment is the key to sustained growth and prosperity and the only sustainable route to social cohesion.
We cannot allow recovery to be a fig leaf for governments reluctant to reform. A return to growth can only hide the weaknesses of the European economy; it cannot remove them. A failure to use the good times to gain leverage against the bad is the very failing that did for the Stability and Growth Pact. This summit must rebuild that pact around a new order of commitment to financial discipline and debt management.
Governments must free people to work the hours they choose and keep the flexibility they need. We have to make work pay and open new ways into work for women and older people. We have to end the failures in education and re-education that are limiting the potential of too many Europeans. We have to invest more in research and development and foster more competitiveness and innovation. The only European social model that matters is the one that preserves our common prosperity for the future.
We need to set attainable targets and concentrate on delivery. We know what needs doing. We need delivery on policy, not wish lists and hand-wringing. Another 'high level group' will simply deliver another expensive tranche of obvious conclusions. While my Group supports job creation and the return of older workers to the employment market, we had more in mind than consultancy positions for retired prime ministers.
The presidency has rightly identified the need for European governments to act more decisively, not only in Council but at home. In many cases the commitments made in Council have been allowed to stall at the transposition stage. The latest figures from the Commission show that last month 131 internal market directives – that is 8.5% of the total – have not been fully implemented in at least one Member State – in breach of their own deadlines! We need to be tougher on policing the internal market.
This Spring Summit has to be about delivery. Before June, Liberal Democrats in this House expect final decisions on crucial measures to assist European worker mobility, including in the area of the mutual recognition of qualifications; we want real progress on a framework directive on services, and we feel that it is past time for agreement on a financial services action plan that can free up Europe's capital markets.
The Lisbon Agenda gave us a decade to reform. Five years on, too little has been done. We cannot afford to be standing here five years from now wondering how we let Europe get left behind."@en1
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