Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-13-Speech-3-011"
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"en.20050413.2.3-011"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats welcomes the results of the spring Council with respect to the Lisbon Strategy. We believe that it has found an appropriate way of expressing its thinking, while the objectives are ambitious, but also realistic.
The top priority over the next few weeks is to adopt the European Constitution. We call on everyone involved to make their contribution, so that we achieve a majority in the referendums in France and the Netherlands, so that we also have a good basis for all subsequent referendums, because the Constitution is the top priority and we need the European Constitution for the future of Europe.
Like the Council and the Commission, we are of the opinion that our objective must be to improve the competitiveness of the European Union, that our objective must be to achieve more growth, and that we must also make use along the way of improved competitiveness and stronger growth to create more jobs. In doing so, it is the joint task of the Commission, the Council and Parliament to formulate our European legislation such that we do justice to this objective. This applies in particular to all the legislation connected with REACH, in other words to legislation on chemicals, where we, the European Parliament and the Council, have a huge legislative task to complete. I call on the Commission to also make its own contribution to this.
Within the framework of the Lisbon Strategy, we give a very explicit welcome to the good cooperation that now prevails, not only between the Commission, the Council and Parliament, but also – and more importantly – with the national parliaments. The President of this House suggested the – to my mind – very good initiative, that we here in the European Parliament should consult with our national counterparts on the Lisbon Strategy. That is good for the matter in hand, for the Lisbon Strategy, and also for cooperation between the European Parliament and the national parliaments and it should also serve as an example in other political sectors.
As far as the stability of the European currency is concerned, the great majority of our group would have welcomed our adhering to the rules hitherto. We stress very emphatically that confidence in the stability of the European currency is the basis for the confidence of Europeans among themselves and in the process of European unification.
One must, however, acknowledge – and here I speak in particular to the President-in-Office of the European Council with his experience; I think he was the only person here who was at Maastricht and signed the Treaty – that care was taken to ensure that no cutbacks were made to the 3% and 60% criteria. Hence, the interpretation that we could go to 4% or perhaps even more is absolutely incorrect. The conclusion expressly states that debt, if above 3%, should be close to 3% and that this is not
or an excuse for new, unlimited debt.
I call on the Commission on behalf of our group to continue to resolutely perform its role as the guardian of law and stability in future.
As far as the Croatia issue is concerned, although our group does not believe that Croatia is being treated fairly, we do welcome the efforts being made, especially by the President-in-Office of the European Council, to ensure that, ultimately, not only the International Criminal Court in the Hague will decide or hand down a preliminary ruling on whether negotiations should begin, but also that a commission will be set up to examine the situation in Croatia. I recommend that we start work quickly, so that negotiations with Croatia can commence.
I emphatically support what was said on Kyoto. We stand alongside all those who are resolutely promoting the reduction of emissions. In our joint resolution, Parliament's compromise resolution, we also take a stand under paragraph 35 on the weapons embargo with respect to China. Our message to the Heads of State or Government is that this House – and I believe that we are united in this – or at least this Group, would refuse to agree to the lifting of the weapons embargo on human rights and other grounds."@en1
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