Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-09-Speech-3-151"
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"en.20050309.15.3-151"2
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".
Mr President, it has been agreed that the European Council of 22 March will focus on the Lisbon Strategy, which was the subject of our debate this morning, as well as on the Stability and Growth Pact, even if there is still a chance that this issue may be settled before the European Council meets. The Council will also discuss the sustainable development strategy and the Kyoto Protocol. In view of the fact that the Lisbon Strategy was discussed in this morning’s sitting, I do not intend to return to it again now. Instead, I will focus on the other two or three topics.
Time is short, however, and in our opinion it would be a good idea if the new sustainable development strategy were to be finalised and presented before the end of the year. We all agree that climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, and that it has a major impact in environmental, economic and social terms. We were therefore delighted when the Kyoto Protocol came into force, and we are also delighted that the Russian Federation has ratified the Protocol.
It is our firm intention to give new impetus to international negotiations. In order to do so, our first task will be to examine the options that exist for a UN-led post-2012 regime that would ensure that the highest possible level of cooperation was achieved from all countries. This week’s Environment Council will focus on this issue, and should come to some kind of conclusion. It will then be necessary to draft a long-term strategy for the European Union, the aim of which should be to stop emissions from exceeding the much-quoted 2ºC increase in temperature and to reduce total emissions from 30% to 15% against 1990 levels by 2020. Finally, a study should be drafted with the aim of achieving a good cost-benefit ratio for all of these measures. It should be plain to everyone that the European Council has a very full agenda; it will deal with issues that are of major significance for the future of the European Union, yet at the same time it will also reassure Europeans that this Europe of ours is concerned about their present and future problems.
The first of these is the Stability and Growth Pact. The Council has been debating reform of the Stability and Growth Pact for some time now, and indeed there are those who probably feel that it has been debating it for too long. It was discussed on several occasions during the Dutch Presidency, and every Ecofin meeting under the Luxembourg Presidency has taken the issue as its central focus.
In view of this in-depth debate and the changes requested by the finance ministers, on 8 March the Presidency presented a document to Ecofin aimed at finding a balanced solution that would meet the needs of all the Member States. It does so by proposing a compromise which is founded on good economic sense – an issue which was also debated by the House this morning – and which provides an answer to the real need for increased flexibility during difficult periods, as well as calling for tighter budgetary discipline during times of growth and prosperity.
As the Ecofin Council was unable to reach an agreement on a report to the European Council during its meeting of 8 March, the Presidency will continue talks with the aim of finding a solution that is acceptable to everyone and that can be presented to the Heads of State or Government. Another meeting of the Ecofin Council has been called for 20 March, or in other words two days before the European Council meets.
This morning I mentioned that a failure to reach an agreement would entail real and significant risks. It is an unfortunate fact that the current Pact would not simply be applied as though nothing had happened, and that failure to reach an agreement would not boost the credibility of the current Pact. At the same time, however, a compromise at all costs – a cut-price compromise, one could say – would be an equally poor solution.
Furthermore, this is an area where Europe is under close observation, first and foremost by the citizens, who expect their decision-makers to be able to pursue economic and budgetary policies that sacrifice neither growth to stability, nor stability to a growth that is at best short-lived.
We should not yet resign ourselves to failure, however, as there is still every chance that a balanced and credible solution may be reached. If we achieve such a solution, which we very much hope to do, the Commission will be provided with a clear mandate regarding the improvements the Member States have agreed to make to the Pact, and the procedures necessary for a formal revision of the Pact’s provisions can then be set in motion. Revision of either of the two regulations will entail a Commission proposal and the involvement of Parliament in accordance with the rules set out in the Treaties, which are in fact different for each of the regulations.
I will now move on to sustainable development and the Kyoto Protocol, both of which are obviously also closely linked to the Lisbon Strategy, given that this morning we came to the conclusion that the environmental aspect of the Lisbon Strategy should be retained or even given extra weight. It is therefore quite natural that the European Council should also deal with issues relating to sustainable development and the Kyoto Protocol. The Presidency believes that sustainable development should be an overarching concept, and one of the aims of the European Council will be to clarify how changes to the sustainable development strategy should be tackled in future.
For example, the guiding principles of sustainable development could be enshrined in a charter, one of the main components of which would be a series of relevant indicators to be used in the various policies in the future. The Commission could submit a proposal to this effect to the European Council to be held in June."@en1
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