Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-26-Speech-3-016"
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"en.20050126.6.3-016"2
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".
Mr President of the Commission, Mr President of the European Council, ladies and gentlemen, the presence of the President of the European Council in this chamber today – for the first time in the history of the European Union – is splendidly symbolic, and augurs well for the success of the Commission’s work in the coming five years.
The same is true, but in another way, of our Eastern neighbours. Tomorrow, Viktor Yushchenko, the newly-elected President of Ukraine, will be here with us. Whilst it would not be true to say that all countries with policies along European lines are capable of joining the European Union right away, what is crucial is that we develop a policy of being a good neighbour.
By way of conclusion, I would like to say that in matters of security, armed force can never be more than the means of last resort. Our task as Europeans is to put together a policy of preventive security. I urge you, Mr President of the Commission, to make every effort to bring peace to the Middle East, enabling Israel to live in peace and the Palestinians to retain their dignity.
If it is in this way that we go into the future of the European Union, and if the Financial Perspective does nothing to infringe Parliament’s rights, then we will be right alongside you, Mr President of the Commission. We have confidence in you, and, for the sake of our European continent, we wish you great success.
It is a fine symbol: here we are today, the President of the Commission, the President of the European Council and the Members of this European Parliament, taking counsel together on the future of our European continent and setting out on the road together, for we know that European integration is the greatest labour of peace of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and it is one for which we want to work.
It is our values, our ideals and our convictions that guide us in what we do. We have faith in our European continent; we believe that it has a future in which we and our children can share. Faith alone, though, is not enough; our common task is to make that faith real through our actions. Our values, which underpin what we do, are the dignity of man, the rule of law, democracy, and an order which, while founded upon the market economy, is also social.
We have confidence in people, in their abilities, and in their drive. Neither state nor public intervention can be fundamental; it is the initiative of each individual, the realisation of their own potential in a society characterised by both freedom and solidarity, that is our model for the future of this continent.
Mr President of the Commission, you have chosen a fine motto for your programme – a partnership within and without, and prosperity, solidarity and security to renew Europe. Your programme is both realistic and ambitious, and we are glad that, rather than again having recourse to the overblown language of Lisbon in March 2000, when the talk was of how Europe was going to become the most competitive economic location in the world, you talk of it becoming ‘more competitive’. You are modest in the language you use, but ambitious in the goal you set, and I see that as the right formula for all of us.
The future of the European social model is dependent on the European Union’s ability to compete in the world, and those who fail to promote the European Union’s competitiveness now will bear the blame if, in the future, we are unable to guarantee a European social model. The European Union’s competitiveness and the European social model are two sides of the same coin, and we are also facing the enormous challenge posed by changes in population. Another great political task for Europe and the countries in it will be to establish the conditions for a proper family policy, for children’s future. Without children, this continent has no future, and that is why we have to treat this as such a major issue.
Also, if we become more competitive, this does not end up benefiting businesses in some abstract way; in very practical ways, it benefits workers, for it is not just about retaining jobs, but also about using our increasing competitiveness as a means to create more of them. That is why there is no contradiction between competition on the one hand and social policy on the other.
Commissioner Almunia’s presence here reminds me that the President of the European Council also, at the same time, presides over an important group of finance ministers. Our group is committed to keeping Europe’s currency stable, and nothing of what we have hitherto heard from Mr Juncker gives us cause for concern. What is crucial, though, is that the assessment of financial policy – and that includes the financial policies of the Member States – should remain the Commission’s responsibility and that the decision as to whether to go back to running a deficit should not be left to the Member States alone; the Commission has an important part to play in it. If you follow the example of your predecessor Pedro Solbes, Mr Almunia, you will always have support from us.
Internal and external security – that too was something you mentioned, Mr President of the Commission. People expect our borders to be secure: we have 11 000 kilometres of them on land, and 68 000 kilometres at sea, and we have to secure them, but they must not become impenetrable. We cannot, in future, have even more people from the states on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa trying to escape the misery of their home countries and dying at sea in the attempt; this is where we have to make a joint effort, together with our neighbours in North Africa, to find a good and humane solution to the refugee problem."@en1
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