Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-18-Speech-3-012"
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"en.20060118.2.3-012"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by saying, Mr President-in-Office, that we expect a great deal of you, because, as you stated yourself, Europe needs trust and progress. These great expectations we have of you and your presidency are not a purely abstract wish but are based on our justifiable hope that you will perform your task wisely, in other words with both ambition and realism. I remember well when Austria held the presidency of the Council in 1998. Your country’s leaders, and you in particular, are convinced Europeans whose commitment to Europe is about action rather than mere rhetoric, and you are competent too. I hope and believe that, at the end of this half-year, we shall be able to say that yours was a successful presidency. It is still too early to pass judgment, of course, but the basic conditions are favourable.
I am delighted that my Socialist friend agrees, but I would never venture to speak for his Group. He will do that himself shortly.
When we speak of the Services Directive, I must also say that Europe’s ability to deal with the major problems arising from globalisation would be weakened in the absence of an internal market. This is why we need the single European market as a response to globalisation.
On the constitution, we ask you to draw up a timetable, so that we ultimately arrive at an outcome which all countries of the European Union can support, because we – and here I am speaking for the PPE section of our Group – are firmly convinced that we need the constitution.
Finally, energy was mentioned here. It goes without saying that the energy debate is partly about our own supply, about ourselves and our prosperity. Our prosperity will ultimately count for nothing, however, if it is not rooted in democracy. This is why we shall not tolerate a situation in which one of the G8 countries set different prices for countries such as Ukraine, which are democracies, and countries like Belarus, which is run by a ruthless dictator but gets cheaper gas. We shall not be a party to this; we want to be an advocate for all our neighbours on the basis of sound social development, on the basis of democracy, the rule of law and human dignity. We wish you every success in this effort.
You mentioned something that I believe to be the key principle for Europe, namely that public trust in the European institutions must flow from the mutual trust between heads of government. I am truly hopeful that you will manage to portray the European Council and the governments as a decisive body that is also united in its desire to move Europe forward, thereby dispelling the impression that all heads of government are unable to look beyond their countries’ perceived national interests and will be the ruination of Europe. In the European Council, we must begin to act for Europe on the basis of mutual trust.
We in Europe must know that there can be no response to the great challenges of the present day without Europe. Europe is not the answer to every problem, but the great challenges will not be met without it. The President of the Commission said that the European institutions are a means to an end. Yes, that is true, and it means that we need the European institutions to ensure that some governments do not take it upon themselves to dictate the way forward. This is not confined to the large countries. We in the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats are opposed to a Union dominated by the large countries. At the same time, having heard the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands say, only yesterday or the day before, that the European constitution was dead, we regard that as no less a bid for dominance, implying as it does that all other countries should follow the Netherlands’ lead. We shall not accept that either.
You spoke of employment, the economy and growth. We endorse everything you said, but when we speak of support for small and medium-sized enterprises, we are not asking for subsidies. What these businesses want is relief from the burden of taxation and red tape. If we can provide that through the European and national ground rules, jobs can then be created too. This is why we say that small and medium-sized businesses should be at the heart of our thinking on economic policy.
This also means, of course, that we say ‘yes’ to European legislation, including the Services Directive. You spoke of openness and protection. That is precisely the balance we must strike. We are working on this in the European Parliament, and I hope we shall succeed in finding an acceptable solution at first reading in February."@en1
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