Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-12-Speech-3-024"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20050112.3.3-024"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, Luxembourg’s Presidency of the Council in this first half of 2005 is very probably the last of its kind that we shall see. Under the European Constitution, by the time my country is next in line to take its turn in the presidency, the presidency of the Council of Heads of State or Government will have been permanently reformed. It follows that a last presidency – which is what this one is – must be a good one, and one whose successes will stand the test of time.
The biggest and most difficult tasks for our 2005 presidency have to do with finance policy; its agenda is dominated by the determination of the financial framework for the period from 2007 to 2013 and by a more flexible interpretation of the Stability and Growth Pact. The financial framework for the enlarged Union must be negotiated in such a way that an ambitious approach to the shaping of European policy is not obstructed by budgetary constraints at national level.
Europe’s 450 million inhabitants expect the European Union to be able to take effective action, and we will not be meeting their expectations by disputing over tenths and hundredths of percentage points, so it is vital that the Luxembourg Presidency should make a success of the tricky feat of giving the EU’s financial planning a European dimension. In so doing, it will be acting in the interests of every European and of a Union that is not only enlarging itself but also, and at the same time, benefiting its citizens by putting its policies on an adequate and appropriate financial footing, failing which further rounds of enlargement will be quite beyond its capacities.
During the coming six months, Europe’s Stability and Growth Pact is to be reinterpreted in line with the economic situation. It is in fact economic good sense, as well as the demands of a dynamic employment policy in Europe, that require that it be adapted to take account of the realities of the growth cycle. The fact is that the Pact is about growth as well as stability, and excessive rigidity must not be allowed to hamper growth rather than promote it.
The Lisbon strategy faces its mid-term review on 22 March of this year, when what has been achieved so far will be assessed and new priorities set. The Luxembourg Presidency of the Council proposes that, by 2010, every Member State should have set in motion tangible and demonstrable reforms in every one of the areas in which the Lisbon strategy requires action. That having been said, the EU’s economic environment will also undergo changes over the next five years. Europe is not alone in the world in striving to improve its performance and become more competitive, and so the Lisbon reform agenda will have to be successfully implemented by 2010. The Luxembourg Presidency is well aware of that, and will endeavour to ensure that its announcement is followed up by a stage in which progress is actually made.
Finally, it matters a great deal to me that something should be said, in this debate, on the epoch-making events in Ukraine, which is a European state, one that has, in the last month, demonstrated its desire to be one of us, and its ability to enrich the European family with its convictions and its experience. If it should be under Luxembourg’s Presidency that a start is made on completing the map of Europe, we should bear in mind that Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania have a neighbour whose people see their future as being alongside all of us in Europe."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples