Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-25-Speech-3-064"
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"en.20040225.5.3-064"2
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"Mr President, the reports for the Spring Summit of the European Council compel us to draw an overwhelming conclusion, which I shall summarise here. At its Lisbon Summit in 2000, the Council formulated the aim that the European Union should become the most competitive economy in the world by 2010. In actual fact, we have tended to decline in every respect since then, with the result that we are now further away from that aim. All the indicators have fallen into the red – especially in the euro area, I might add. Let me illustrate this with a few examples: growth slowing down to 0.4% in 2003, rising unemployment, productivity lagging behind that of the United States, declining public and private investment, worsening budgetary balances and a lack of any clear impetus in the direction of structural reforms.
Faced with this situation – a disastrous situation, to be perfectly honest – what proposals do we hear? That we should be more resolute in pursuing our present policies, designed primarily to defragment the internal market, to support research and innovation and to increase investment in human capital as a matter of priority. All of these are very admirable objectives, but in fact they may not solve anything, because they do not go to the heart of the problem. The large countries of the euro area are ailing, but their cure can only come from themselves. The Union can certainly assist them, but only by helping to liberate and protect the creators of wealth. ‘Liberate’ and ‘protect’ are the two key words. In actual fact, however, we are doing the opposite. We are not having a liberating effect at the European level, because every day we adopt new regulations, entangling governments and businesses in ever more complex and costly decision-making systems. Every day we add new rigidity. Yesterday it was the standardisation of monetary policy for twelve countries; tomorrow it will be a European constitution which, by its very nature, runs counter to the flexible Europe that we need. Every day we add new taxes, and the European tax proposed by the Commission during the preparation of the next financial perspective is the latest manifestation of this trend.
At the same time, the Union does not afford its economy enough protection. Its competition policy does not take sufficient account of the pressing need to create major European conglomerates. It is selling off the Community preference at knock-down prices in industry as in agriculture. Even now it is in the process of agreeing to the use of European wine designations by producers outside the Community. Finally, it has been instrumental in allowing the entry of unskilled immigrants who do not meet the needs of our economy and who impose a heavy burden on our welfare budgets. In short, we are doing the opposite of what is needed. Mr President, we must not be surprised when we reap what we have sown."@en1
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