Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-26-Speech-3-017"
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"en.20050126.6.3-017"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today Mr Barroso has put before us a glass, and it is for us to decide how full it is. That such a President of the Commission as Mr Barroso has not presented us with a glass brimming over with red wine is something we expected. Now, though, we have to ask ourselves whether the glass is half full or half empty. We have come to the conclusion that it is half full.
Let me conclude by saying something fundamental about our future cooperation. This House gained in strength through the whole process of confirming the Commission in office, and it is good that you want to accommodate its wishes and work together with it as a whole. The presence here today of the President of the Council is an outstanding symbol of the truth that, when these institutions work together, security, prosperity, flexibility – and, where necessary, social security – can work. It is in cooperation that we find strength. ‘
is a fine saying. We are willing to unite if we are treated with respect and our political demands taken seriously. Remember, Mr President, that this is a day of agreement, and enjoy it, for the days of trial are yet to come.
Some of the proposals you have put before us are good; some of them are what we Social Democrats expected from a Commission such as yours. There are also things that you omitted, and that we would have liked to hear from you, but I do not want to hold that against you. Much of what we have heard today we can see as reflecting what we Social Democrats think.
For that reason, I want to thank you for having worked with the Social Democrats among your Commissioners, and it is evident even from the title of your strategic programme that you discussed its publication with Commissioner Wallström. That is apparent both from the title and the contents, which reflects points that we Social Democrats have made, and that, Mr President, is a good thing. We would encourage you to carry on down that road.
We have heard you say that you want your work over the next five years to focus on prosperity, solidarity and security. You have proved yourself to be a good listener. You were right to say that solidarity, prosperity and security are interdependent. Now, within the European framework, each has his responsibility: you, the President of the Council, and this Parliament as a whole. All of us have our institutional roles. This Parliament, though, is home to political families, and the political family that I represent has no institutional role to play, but rather a political task to perform. That political task involves me telling Mr Poettering that he is right to say that enhanced competitiveness and social policy are two sides of the same coin, but that we want both sides of this coin to be stamped with the same value. We are right behind those who want more competition in Europe if they want it to benefit social cohesion. Growth has to be created in order that social cohesion be secured; if that is your watchword, Mr President, then the Socialists are on your side. If, though, that does not happen and the approach involves using deregulation as a means of dismantling the socially responsible practices for which we Socialists have campaigned for over 150 years, then we will not support it.
That is why I want to add that we are hearing a good message today. The programme you have put before us is a good one, one on the basis of which we can work together with you. The litmus test, though, will be the lawmaking process. When you take your initiatives and the Council and this House must take joint decisions, we will have to make compromises, and we will then all have to be judged by how much of what had been announced is actually produced. So let me repeat that, while we are prepared to cooperate in a constructive way, we do have our very clearly-defined expectations where the maintenance of social standards in Europe is concerned.
There are two things I want to say to you on behalf of the Socialist Group, two things that were new to us today and that we were glad to hear. We have been critical of you – not so much in your present role, which has to do with positions on international policy, as in your former role as Prime Minister of Portugal. For you to say, as you did today, that your Commission wants efficient multilateralism, is something we regard as progress. As Mr Poettering pointed out, we want Europe to be a global political player, but also a civilian power. We do not want to solve international problems with pre-emptive strikes, and I have to say that the re-elected American President’s inauguration speech gave me the impression that the European Union must redouble its efforts at ensuring that civilian rather than military solutions are applied. Let us not add another disaster to the one already playing out in Iraq.
If you, as one of the representatives of an organisation that carries weight in international politics, say: ‘I want efficient multilateralism’, then we will support you in that.
Turning to the Stability Pact, we share Mr Poettering’s view that it must be secured, and believe that its criteria should not be changed, but it must be manageable and usable, addressing the demands of 2005 rather than those of 1990. Fifteen years of development separate those two dates. A Stability Pact that is often interpreted in such a way that it produces the precise opposite of the growth to which its second part refers; a Pact that is so stable that it inhibits growth: such a pact is internally self-contradictory. That is why we want to see it reformed, and that is why we endorse the good proposals from Mr Almunia."@en1
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"L'union fait la force’"1
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