Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-12-Speech-3-015"
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"en.20050112.3.3-015"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President of the European Council, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, we welcome to the House today the Presidents of the European Council and of the Commission, and I gather that the President of the European Council will also be present when the Commission unveils its programme in Brussels on 26 January. I see that as a splendid symbol for the ever-growing cooperation between Parliament, the Council and the Commission. Future presidencies should take that as an example to follow.
Turning to trans-Atlantic relations, I wish you, and of course the President of the Commission, great success with President Bush’s visit, which will usher in a new era of good relations with the United States of America. We cannot have two groups of states in the European Union, each with its own way of maintaining relations with the USA. We Europeans must unite in taking up a position founded upon partnership with our American friends, and so, as you, Mr President of the Council, have said, we in the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, bring determination and passion to supporting you, and wish you great success in your presidency.
Although we were very pleased to see the President of the Commission and the President of the Council in Asia, visiting Jakarta as an expression of the European Union’s solidarity, I would like to emphasise that, however necessary solidarity with the stricken areas might be, we must not overlook the great problems in Africa and in other parts of the world. We have to consider how we can, in so far as we are able, take preventive measures, in the shape of an early warning system, in Europe too, for example in the Mediterranean.
We are very much behind you, Mr President of the Council, in what you had to say about the Community method. Luxembourg may well be small in geographical terms, but it is a Grand Duchy and hence a great country, and the Benelux states’ presidencies have always been excellent ones. We wish you great success; for the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats too, the Constitution is of the utmost priority.
In Brussels, we will have in-depth discussions on the Lisbon strategy, even though making the European economy competitive is not an end in itself, for the fact is that a strong economy is the best guarantee of good social policy. We see competitiveness as being about creating more jobs in Europe by way of growth and better conditions for European businesses. For us, that is social policy in the true sense of the word. Rather than setting ecology and the protection of the environment against the economy, we need a sensible balance between them.
We also wish you and your presidency success in handling the financial perspective. To those ladies and gentlemen – in this instance, no doubt, only gentlemen – who wrote letters arguing in favour of the 1% limit, we would say that you cannot enlarge Europe and then refuse the EU’s new Member States the money that is an expression of our solidarity, and which they need in order to be brought up to our standards. To do that, we in the European Union need the necessary funding to be made available. You have mentioned the treaties that are to be signed, but how, in the absence of any agreement by June and of any success in medium-term financial planning, are we to cope with the accession of new states to the European Union? We are very glad that it is Reimer Böge, a very competent member of our group, who will be writing the report for this House.
You also made reference to the Stability Pact. I am very grateful to you for what you said, and I can agree with every word of it. What you said boils down, in essence, to the need for more flexibility. The thing about flexibility is that it is those states that have made provisions that have more of it. To come to the point, then, the less indebted a state is, the more flexible it can be when times are hard for the economy, which also means that we have to do what has to be done to reduce deficits when things are going well for the economy, for we know that today’s debts always end up being tomorrow’s taxes, and a burden on the public as a whole, particularly on the younger generation.
Let me just say something briefly about foreign policy issues, a number of which you have addressed, and – as I understand it – the President of the Commission is in full agreement with what you said. Our support for Ukraine is only just beginning and will have to be an ongoing responsibility.
If I may turn to Palestine, where elections have just taken place, we want a secure Israel and a secure Palestinian state. The European Union’s role must not – contrary to what we are told by not a few high-ranking representatives from the Middle East – be merely a matter of providing financial support, but should involve us, as an honest broker, making our contribution to bringing peace to the Middle East."@en1
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