Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-18-Speech-3-015"
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"en.20060118.2.3-015"2
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"Mr President, Presidents, ladies and gentlemen, my neighbour has reminded me, Mr President-in-Office, that you play ice hockey. In that case you will surely forgive me a few body checks.
We all claim to be honest, and we are certainly all trustworthy – no doubt about that. My friend Albert Einstein told me the following about quantum theory: if the important thing is to ask the right question, he said, you must always try to find out what has been left out of the question, because that is the important thing at the end of the day. I shall therefore follow Einstein’s advice and say this to you: of course you are an honest broker, and of course every country should organise its energy provision as it sees fit. The problem is: where do we set our research priorities? Do we give precedence to the old energy source known as nuclear energy or to research into (a) renewables and (b) hydrogen obtained from solar power? They cannot both be research priorities. Given a choice between water and coal, we cannot choose both. You can have your cake, or you can eat it. It is high time you announced what you yourself wanted rather than simply saying you will go along with whatever the others want.
On the subject of small and medium-sized enterprises, I agree with you, but at some stage a decision will have to be taken here too. We say yes to flexibility, but also to security. It would be wrong for us to organise a society in which those who have difficulties with flexibility must also pay the price of insecurity. In short, we must decide on a system that guarantees both flexibility and security. You did not say that.
You went on to tell us that we need a market in Europe. Wonderful! We are for that too. You also spoke of the Services Directive. Interestingly, there is one thing that neither you nor your political ally Mr Poettering mentioned, and I should like to hear what you have to say about it. I refer to the country-of-origin principle. No one is questioning the principle of freedom to provide services in Europe. What we are questioning is a country-of-origin principle that will destroy social justice in the Member States. Are you for it or against it? You have not told us. That is the problem with social justice: it shows that there is actually a difference between Right and Left in this Parliament.
Then we come to growth. You rightly referred to training and qualifications. The European Union, of course, is not responsible for education, but it can disseminate good practice. I long for a presidency that will finally get together with the Commission to examine the education system in Europe and conclude, as did the neo-liberal OECD, that the German and Austrian systems are the pits, because they simply do not guarantee equality. This is not Cohn-Bendit speaking but the OECD in its Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study. It is time we understood that. Germany’s so-called performance-based system is a disgrace and needs to be reviewed at the European level.
Let us move on to what you did not say, Mr President-in-Office. I should like to know one thing about the European way of life: the European way of life is effectively synonymous with European law. Is it possible that there are institutions in this world – the CIA, to be precise – that operate in Europe in a legal framework that has nothing to do with the European way of life? What contribution will the presidency make to support the Committee of Inquiry of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe and to spell out to the United States and the rest of the world that Europe is not a place where any imperial power can feel free to do as it likes. And I should also like to hear what conflicts Europe is prepared to risk to defend its way of life. As you see, my friend Albert Einstein was right: a lot of probing is needed when someone does not speak about certain things."@en1
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