Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-14-Speech-2-052"
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"en.20041214.5.2-052"2
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"Mr President, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, to answer the question as to what has to be done over the next five years, I would like to make just three points. The first is that our great task in the aftermath of 1 May 2004 is to stabilise the process of European integration. We must not overstretch ourselves by now accepting too many new Member States into the European Union; instead, we must join together with our ten new Member States in consolidating what we have achieved, for they want this and are willing to actively contribute to it.
Secondly, we have to make the European Union more competitive, and there is much that has to take second place to that. Let me take this opportunity to put the very straightforward question – and I am glad that the Vice-President is here – as to whether it makes sense to use the REACH project to enhance the competitiveness of industries outside the European Union, while ushering in a programme of deindustrialisation at home? I would like to back up Mrs Schierhuber in what she said about the sugar market regime. Is there any sense in our allowing into the European Union sugar produced in Brazil with disregard for the environment and for human life, while at the same time making life difficult for our countryside with more and more impositions? Does that make the European Union more competitive? Such are the questions that the Commission will have to answer over the next five years.
The third issue is this. We need to create confidence in the euro. This is something we can do together. People have followed this single currency project with no more than a critical eye. Our task must be to create the favourable prospects that this young currency deserves. In practical terms, that means that the Stability Pact must not, of course, be called into question, nor must it be subject to intelligent interpretation; instead, Europe will not be able to produce a lasting solution to the problems of a constantly ageing population and the diminishing options for the young unless all the Member States find a way out of the debt trap. In doing that, the Stability Pact has a highly disciplinary effect; it must not be abandoned, but defended."@en1
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