Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-07-21-Speech-3-100"
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"en.20040721.6.3-100"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-designate of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, our Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats welcomes the unanimous proposal by the Heads of State or Government of the countries of the European Union that José Manuel Durão Barroso should become President of the European Commission. Mr Barroso said he comes from Portugal, which we all know, from a country at the edge of the European Union but at the heart of Europe. I liked that turn of phrase very much because it says right at the outset that we are Europeans because we have a home somewhere. Being Europeans does not mean giving up our native country or our homeland. On the contrary, it all goes together and that is why it is important that people who aspire to positions of responsibility also declare their allegiance to the country they come from. If it lies at the heart of Europe, at the centre of the European Union, that is also an expression of allegiance to the common work of uniting Europe, which is something we all want to make a success.
As Mr Jan-Peter Balkenende, the President of the European Council, said here this morning, this Europe is a Europe of values, and there is a relationship and a balance between those values. You described that balance: freedom, human rights, democracy, the rule of law, solidarity and social justice. If we take these values seriously, we must of necessity take it for granted that the President of the Commission will not divide but will bring together. For all the disputes we may have in this House over individual issues, it is after all our common aim to serve this continent. You said you want a strong and independent Commission, that you want to lead, but that you want to work on proposals as a team, and that is what we want. We do not want to have the impression any more that the President of the Commission plays only a subordinate role when in summit with the Heads of State or Government; we want the President of the Commission, with the President-in-Office of the Council, to play the leading role at the summit meetings of the European Union countries.
We believe you can do this. At the same time, you also know that the Commission can only be strong if it has the broad majority of the European Parliament behind it. The European Commission is the guardian of the Treaties. European Union law must never be handled in an opportunistic manner, or we are lost, and that, for a president, is the first principle of leadership. You also said you will dismiss from office a member of the Commission who behaves inappropriately. That was also what we agreed with Romano Prodi five years ago. We also agreed that the members of the Commission, including its President, will give account here in plenary session whenever Parliament demands it. I do not want to start an argument at this point over whether the Commission is a kind of government. If you are elected, Mr candidate President (I do not know the correct way to address you other than as candidate for the office of Commission President), – which our group hopes that you will be, and it will do all it can to see that you are – we expect you, as elected President, to appear before the European Parliament whenever Parliament demands, just as a national head of government appears before his own national parliament as a matter of course. That is what we expect of you and of all members of the Commission.
It is in this way that we will exercise our control if the Commission is eventually endorsed. You spoke of a partnership for Europe. I believe it is very important that we should be real partners, across party lines and across national borders, especially now that ten new countries have joined the European Union, and above all that we should offer something to the young generation, to the young people who need a good education, who have to be well educated if we are to achieve the Lisbon objective of being a really competitive place in the world. That is why we must give our continent’s young people a chance.
You spoke in favour of the principle of subsidiarity; as my time is limited, I will not enlarge on this point but I would like to mention again the young woman Mr Balkenende spoke of this morning, Ilma Kaulina in Riga, who said: ‘I believe in the future of Europe’. Ladies and gentlemen, we all believe in the future of Europe and that is why we should give this candidate, who like his country is at the heart of the European Union, a chance so that tomorrow we will be able to say we have a new President of the European Commission."@en1
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