Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-27-Speech-3-009"
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"en.20041027.3.3-009"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, I had actually wanted to start my speech with the words ‘Next week we will have a new Commission’, but today I will leave that to you to decide, ...
I want to point out, in connection with this, that the Commission is not relaxing in its efforts to improve lawmaking, in other words, making it simpler and more comprehensible, and, in particular, to attach more importance to the broadest possible impact assessment, making visible what happens to the sectors of society affected by the laws we make, especially the economy and businesses.
The Presidency has prioritised measures aimed at simplification and those intended to improve impact assessment and to measure administrative costs, and these measures the Commission unreservedly endorses. We are sharing in the work on these measures, and we welcome the work that is being done by the high-level group representing Parliament, the Commission and the Council on improving lawmaking.
Turning to the area of freedom, security and justice, the European Council will be adopting, by way of following up the Tampere programmes, a multiannual programme that will determine what the Union does in this area over the coming years. Since Tampere, we have laid the foundations for a common area of freedom, security and justice. The new Hague Programme will continue these efforts with the same vision and with a renewed willingness to cooperate with an enlarged and enlarging Union founded on the basic values of justice, freedom and security for all its citizens.
Since Tampere, we have adapted our priorities to take account of the many tragic events and appalling atrocities that we have had to witness in recent years. It is now largely accepted that the Member States cannot meet these challenges alone. If we are to prevail, we must continue to work together within the structure of the EU.
Another important element was the progressive development of a new policy, which deals with fundamental rights. The incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the Constitutional Treaty, the forthcoming accession to the European Convention on Human Rights, the development of mechanisms under Article 7, the adoption of the anti-discrimination directives – all these things have had an effect on the EU, and they are reflected in every area of its policies. In the same way that we, in the field of economic policy, make the claim to be seeking, by our own efforts, to become the world’s strongest economic area, we should also be ambitious enough to make every effort to become the area of the world with the strongest guarantees of human rights. These aspects remind us that we have to find the right way between the need for, and right to, freedom on the one hand and security considerations on the other.
Where security is concerned, the events of recent years have compelled us to make the combating of terrorism a priority. Although we cannot allow ourselves to be distracted from this, we should not forget the need to press on with the effective prevention and combating of all serious forms of organised crime, and this features in the new programme. In terms of practical implementation, the Commission welcomes the Council’s decision to introduce the codecision procedure for the sectors covered by Title IV of the Treaty of Nice, and will be producing an annual progress report on the results and the way in which this works in practice.
Next week’s European Council will also consider the question of how to communicate Europe to its citizens. Here in the House, I do not need to enlarge on this task, for it is one with which every one of you has to do on a daily basis, and I am sure that we all agree that communication can be improved and needs to be one of our principal priorities. There is a perceptible gulf between the European institutions and the public, and we must close it. I believe that the ratification of the Constitutional Treaty in all the Member States will provide a great opportunity for discussing Europe with the public and for involving them in its political processes. While the ratification process remains a matter for the national level, the Commission will, while it is going on, communicate more with people in order to be of assistance wherever they need to be informed about the Constitution or have its advantages for our Union explained to them. It does of course go without saying that a communications offensive of this kind can be mounted only in close cooperation and partnership with the European Parliament.
Let me conclude by saying something further about enlargement. The European Council will not, over the coming weeks, be taking any decisions about the most recent reports by the Commission, but they will be discussed and presented. Your House has already received the proposals that the Commission adopted at the beginning of this month, and I think we have reached a very important point where enlargement is concerned. Even today, we can predict, with a fair degree of certainty, that the fifth enlargement will be completed, as planned, by the accession of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007. We can fairly accurately predict that we will commence negotiations with Croatia at the beginning of next year, and we know that it will be at the end of this year that the great decision, with its far-reaching implications, must be taken as to whether or not to start negotiations with Turkey. Let me just say at this point that the Commission has endeavoured to produce a consensus-based proposal, one that has paid very close attention to the discussions that have gone on in the Member States and to what was discussed in this House – in every one of its political groups, no less. It was also intended that the proposal should take as much account as possible of people’s thoughts and ideas, not to mention their fears and concerns, which we do indeed share. The Commission is, for that reason, convinced that the proposals it has made constitute a sound basis for the decisions that have to be taken.
The Commission believes that next week’s European Council will provide an outstanding opportunity to demonstrate both the continuity of European policy and its new-found dynamism.
... and will say that, whatever happens today, offices are about to be handed over. The present Commission’s term of office is coming to an end, and that of a new Commission will begin. That does not mean, however, that a whole new policy is in the offing; on the contrary, whatever you decide, there will be continuity in the broad outlines of European policy. It is important to point out that there is no dispute about the great issues facing Europe today, and that European policy will still be reliable, stable and constant even after the offices have changed over.
It was with this in mind that Mr Barroso, whom you have already elected as President of the Commission, reaffirmed yesterday morning that the next Commission, every bit as much as the present one, was committed to creating a competitive Europe and to making the European economy more competitive. At the heart of these efforts was and is the Lisbon strategy, and it must remain so, with all its essential components intact. Change is, however, essential in one respect, and that is that we cannot be content with devising plans or ambitious perspectives, but we must also do some serious work on making these plans and ambitions reality, by which I mean really breathing life into this Lisbon strategy.
Another essential aspect on which the President-designate laid stress is the creation of a secure Europe, one that concentrates on the needs of its citizens. The Europe we want is one that builds up its external relations with all its important partners, with prospective Member States in particular and with its neighbours in general.
The topics with which the European Council intends to deal next week are very closely connected to these issues. I want to highlight the most important items, with particular reference to the Lisbon strategy and to the new programme for strengthening justice, freedom and security.
The Commission very much welcomes the mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy, which is now entering its decisive phase; the high-level group chaired by the former Dutch prime minister, Mr Wim Kok, is to present its report next week. The Commission is working on the assumption that it, on the basis of this report, will be mandated to draft concrete proposals for this mid-term review in preparation for the Council’s Spring Summit. This is a time window; it is the moment at which we will be allowed to get the Lisbon strategy onto the right track. That should not be taken to mean that nothing has happened in the last five years, but there is no point in skirting around the fact that not enough has happened, and the Commission is seriously concerned to note that one Member State after another has, above all, failed to summon up sufficient energy to translate its promises into actions. This now has to change. The Commission is still willing to closely consider all the options as to how the process can actually be got moving and can also be better supervised.
The Commission believes that the EU must now really focus on the growth aspect. There is no doubt that Europe needs dynamic and sustainable growth in order to create more jobs and thus securely underpin our social model. For that to happen, we need more entrepreneurial initiative, greater willingness to be innovative, and more investment in research and education. Europe needs us to implement the reforms that make for more economic dynamism.
In order to become a real knowledge-based economic area capable of keeping up with ever-tougher international competition, Europe must play the trump cards it holds in the areas of education, expertise and technical development. Let me very plainly reiterate, though, that creating a more dynamic and more competitive Europe must go hand in hand with the maintenance of the European social model; only in a more dynamic and more competitive Europe will we be able to uphold that model. We should not forget that some of our Member States are still far from possessing really adequate social protection. Competitiveness, cohesion and solidarity must be advanced in parallel, they must, so to speak, move forward in step with each other. The Lisbon mid-term review gives us the chance to achieve these goals."@en1
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