Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-23-Speech-4-030"
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"en.20050623.4.4-030"2
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"Mr President, you, Mr Blair, are entering into a difficult inheritance. Yesterday, Mr Juncker was in this Chamber, and we very much appreciated and applauded his commitment – an emotional commitment – to the European cause. You, today, have told us the other half of the truth, a great deal of which I can understand, and if many Members of this House were to rid themselves of the prejudices they have accumulated over recent years, they would find a lot in what has been said today that they would agree with.
What Europe needs, though, is wholehearted commitment, both on your part and on that of your country. The British press and public being what they are, that will not be easy, but what is needed is an opt-in rather than an opt-out, and I hope that you, as President-in-Office of the Council, will be putting the case for one.
Let me mention a few issues, starting with unemployment, in respect of which you, in the UK, have notched up some enormous successes. Any objective observer must concede that. Having had very high unemployment during the Thatcher era, it is now very low, among the lowest in Europe. That is the sort of thing we need, although – as Mr Schulz said – we also need jobs that confer dignity, particularly in view of enlargement. I am very grateful to you for the sympathetic things you had to say about enlargement, but we have to ensure that there are no new divisions, and that the workers from Eastern Europe, who are, alas, perennially underpaid, are not exploited.
Secondly, there is the issue of the services directive, and about this you are entirely right; although we need a common market in services, we have to create one step by step, and we also need something that you mentioned only indirectly, namely public services. As you yourself said, manifest deficiencies mean that the United Kingdom has to make massive investments in such public services as transport, health and housing, and that sort of investment too must make up the shortfall in the services sector, which we are in the process of liberalising.
This liberalisation process is something that people will accept if they see that this Europe of ours is all in favour not only of a common market, but also of the public services about which they care a great deal.
You are entirely right in what you say about enlargement. We cannot call a halt to it, but we must make better preparations for it, both in the new Member States and in the existing Member States of the European Union, for the argument was often – and wrongly – deployed that enlargement would be to the detriment of the existing Member States. You were right to say how false that is, but that is something we have to get across to our own people.
Foreign policy will also be a decisive factor. Great Britain, the country of which you are the Prime Minister, has traditionally had good relations with the United States of America. You enjoy especially good relations with President Bush, and that can be to Europe’s benefit, provided that it is clear that you speak also for Europe; provided that it is clear that the position you represent in Washington is Europe’s. If you do that, we will be right behind you.
One of the greatest projects – and one to which you referred – is the Middle East. We need peace in the Middle East, for – far from being just any old region of the world – the Middle East is our own back yard, our own neighbourhood, and we need peace to be concluded between the Palestinians and the Israelis. You have undertaken to play a very active part in bringing it about, and have indeed already been doing so over recent months, but the critical stage will come – as we must be aware – with the withdrawal from Gaza, which is imminent. The European position cannot amount to ‘Gaza first and last’; we have to take a more progressive line here.
Lastly, I urge you to cultivate your good relations with the Americans, but London is closer to Brussels than to Washington. Even if President Bush needs you in Washington, we need you here in Brussels."@en1
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