Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-15-Speech-2-038"
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"en.20051115.7.2-038"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President of the Commission, Commissioners, there is certainly much in the programme and in what President Barroso said today that we can endorse, particularly – and I am picking up on a point made by Mr Barón Crespo when I say this – Commissioner Mandelson’s attempts at keeping the Hong Kong round of talks fair and balanced. Despite his scepticism, I hope that will be achieved.
Your programme, Mr President, in which you express the desire to unlock Europe’s full potential, is a very ambitious one, but I have to say, on the basis of our group’s consideration of it, that there are a few essentials missing from it.
Let me start with the riots in the French cities. Those are certainly French events, but deeper causes underlie them. Perhaps you now understand why our group has always highlighted the importance of social cohesion, for where people are unemployed, where they are not integrated, where they are isolated and discriminated against, upheavals of that kind are not far away. This programme also, in this regard, lacks any clear statement about the importance of public services, which are especially important, particularly in cities, as a means of accommodating and helping people who have fewer chances in life.
Something else you referred to, Mr President of the Commission, was the energy issue. Although I have a high regard for the Energy Commissioner and work well with him, I have to say that we have often pointed out how important it is, in view of current developments, that the Commission as a whole should give a clear commitment to a policy on alternative energy. It is also vital that you should introduce to Europe what is an almost universal practice in America, of obliging the big corporations to plough back more of their disproportionate profits into research and development. We are curious as to what the Green Paper – which should have been available some time ago – will contain, and it will certainly be the subject of vigorous and serious debate.
Thirdly, there is Europe’s research potential, and this we must awaken. We are currently debating the Seventh Framework Programme for Research, but does the Commission have any overall scheme for implementing it? To give one example, your programme makes only vague and cautious reference to the European Institute of Technology, yet this is where there is a need for more boldness and determination on your part, and for you to put forward an overall concept for European universities. We must stop subsidising the Americans by exporting young researchers to them. We educate them and then let them go to America, because they have too few opportunities in Europe. There is also the need for a scheme whereby access to research resources may be improved for small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular. That, too, is an absolute necessity.
I agree with what you had to say about ‘better lawmaking’; it is in the interests of many large businesses, of small and medium-sized enterprises, and of the individual citizen, that we should accomplish this. While we support the Vice-President in what she plans to do, better regulation is also a task for us in this House. We must do far more than we have before to explain, defend and justify every single law-making initiative to the public, and we need to be sensitive in the way we do it. We need to act with a greater sense of purpose. This is not so much about the Commission examining individual measures in terms of their legality, but about whether the Member States are able to achieve the objectives associated with European legislation.
You were right to make reference to social issues, but it is far from clear enough from the programme that economic and social development must go hand in hand. What I would like to see is for you, on behalf of the Commission, to produce a report next year on progress with enlargement – which is a topic to which I should like to return, although I would perhaps attach another meaning to it. There is a great deal of scepticism on the part of the public; many people in the old Member States get the impression that enlargement is being used to lower social standards and cut taxes. Thinking back to the debate that we had with you, Mr President of the Commission, and with Commissioner McCreevy, I do not think we were able to get across just how important this social issue is to us. Now that I read in the
the Commission’s principal mouthpiece – that Commissioner McCreevy is absolutely opposed to tax harmonisation, I find myself wondering whether it really is our aim to keep cutting direct taxes and make ourselves incapable of funding our social and other infrastructure services. Do we want a single, shared Europe with far lower social standards? We – and by that I mean the old and new Member States together – must aim to accomplish a social Europe. I would like to see the Commission produce a report on that next year.
According to a recent report in the
many of the statesmen of major countries – Schröder, Chirac, Blair – can be expected to stand down in the next few years. Poland now has a completely new government. At a time when new governments and new Heads of Government are coming to power, the Commission must take on a leadership role in this Europe of ours, with which these new people are perhaps less familiar, if the European ideal is not to fade still further. If you assume such a leadership role, we will support you, but, if you do so, please make a social Europe one of your objectives!"@en1
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