Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-22-Speech-3-026"
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"en.20050622.13.3-026"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, I would like, before all else, to express the heartfelt gratitude of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats to Mr Jean-Claude Juncker, the President-in-Office of the European Council, for the great passion and conviction with which he has led us, in the European Union, through these months. For this dedication, for this passion, for this conviction, Mr Juncker, you have the warm thanks of the PPE-DE Group.
If I may turn to the European Union’s budget, we find the failure to achieve a result regrettable, but we – including Reimer Böge, who is present in the Chamber – can take some pride in the fact that this House has succeeded in putting together a proposal, and we call on the Heads of State or Government to take it as their guide and to seek to make the reforms that are needed. This House has already given its answer.
This Financial Perspective is needed – and I say this with the utmost seriousness – for those countries in Central and Eastern Europe that joined the European Union on 1 May 2004, and that must be able to rely on our common solidarity in planning how they are to develop their weakest regions. It is for that reason that I hope we will be able to complete this Financial Perspective, which we owe to the European Union’s new Member States, under the incoming British presidency. We in the PPE-DE Group will play our part in making this possible, and we will do so in a spirit of solidarity.
On Saturday morning, the President-in-Office of the European Council’s disappointment was plain for us all to see, and this disappointment we shared with him. We hope the day will come when we will again be able to join together in rejoicing over successes, and that is now a task for all of us.
The fact that the President of this House referred a short time ago to the Soviet occupation, 65 years ago, of the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – is itself a sign of hope. Who, 20 years ago, would have thought that there would be Members in this House hailing from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? It is because that is such a tremendous thing that we must, even now, believe in our continent’s future.
Any attempt at analysis must start from the situation as it now stands, and to those who say, ‘we are in a state of political crisis’, I say, ‘I agree with you’. We must, though, make it our concern that this political crisis should not disorient us and seduce us into activity for activity’s sake, and so we must respond with determination and deliberation. We believe in this Europe of ours, and, for that reason, the political will must be there to lead this Europe of ours, this European Union, into a bright future.
We find ourselves, though, in a twofold crisis of confidence; one that involves various protagonists in the European Council and has been building up for several years, and a crisis as regards many people’s confidence in the European Union’s policymakers. Many people feel that a lot of things are going too fast, and we must regard the regaining of their trust as a common endeavour. What is our goal? We want a European Union that is strong, effective and democratic, and all those who want to make it no more than a free trade zone within Europe will have a fight on their hands. Our Group wants no part of any such thing; we want a strong, effective and democratic European Union, one that enables us to defend our interests in the world. We say the same thing to those who believe that what we need today is the rebuilding of axes; we have heard of one proposal for a Franco-German Union, while others are dreaming of a change of government ushering in an axis between the United Kingdom and Germany.
To those who think like this I have this to say: on the contrary, while we need good bilateral relationships, they must be offered to the European Union as a whole, and it is on this basis of goodwill that we, in the European Union, must then function as a community.
It is worth my adding that the Treaty of Nice makes provision for enhanced cooperation. If some countries want to go further, we can do just that in many areas – foreign and security policy among them.
Where the Constitutional Treaty is concerned, we must be self-critical. The referendum in Luxembourg is now, no doubt, going to go ahead on 10 July, and I wish the President-in-Office every success in it. We now have a pause for thought, and we must use it in order to think. Rather than having a respite from thinking, we must use the time we now have in order to think and to ensure that, when this process of reflection is over, Parts 1 and 2 of the Constitutional Treaty can become legal and political realities."@en1
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