Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-11-17-Speech-3-010"
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"en.20041117.3.3-010"2
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".
Mr President, of the many issues dealt with at the European Council, I would like to focus on two: promoting the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice and the process of economic and social modernisation of Europe, also known as the Lisbon Process.
I would like to congratulate the Dutch Presidency on the exhaustive Hague Programme in relation to the area of freedom, but I would like to add a brief comment. We still need to establish emphases, priorities, with regard to promoting this area. Governing means making choices and establishing priorities.
Times have changed since Tampere I. The time has come to choose priorities and identify the most urgent problems affecting the co-existence of the Europeans and, above all, those which are going to affect its future. We must have the courage to choose and to accept the risk. Courage is what the future of this area of freedom and justice in the European Union is going to require.
The Council says, for example, that the fight against terrorism must be given impetus, but it still does not have sufficient impetus to identify Islamist terrorism as the main problem threatening the co-existence of the Europeans. Madrid, Beslan, the tragedies of the European hostages and last week’s events in the Netherlands confirm this. More Union means more ability to choose and select. So this area must be promoted on the basis of a few, very few, but solid and identifiable European political projects which deal with the real problems facing us, the first of which is Islamist terrorism. The greatest risk to Europe in this field is inaction, paralysis and not knowing what to do.
The Hague Programme does not mention the necessary protection for the victims of terrorism, and I regret that the conclusions have not mentioned this Parliament’s request concerning the creation of the European Office for Assistance for Victims or the consolidation over the coming years of a political project, a political programme aimed in this direction.
Mr President, having seen the report on the mid-term review of Lisbon, the most important thing is that we are aware that we are seriously behind schedule. The European Parliament must promote this Lisbon Process on the basis of three very simple and fundamental ideas: the first is that this Parliament must encourage governments to show signs of courage and to promote the necessary structural reforms, since more Union requires more Europe and more structural reforms; the second is to accept that employment is undoubtedly the best social policy, since more Union means more emphasis on job creation; and, finally, in order to implement Lisbon, the States need streamlined public finances, since more Union requires more budgetary stability demands and no more relaxation of finances amongst the European States as a whole.
Mr President-in-Office of the Council, I thank you for the work you have done over recent months."@en1
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