Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-22-Speech-3-052"
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"en.20060322.11.3-052"2
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, our debate today consists of taking stock and planning for the future, as well as finding a consensus regarding the priority actions for 2007. It is a question of working together so that we can properly prepare the ground for future actions.
Energy will continue to attract our attention. We will pay special attention to the promotion of sustainable management and the protection of natural resources. We will make proposals for a European Union maritime policy. We will follow up on the Green Paper on labour law. The year 2007 will also be the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All. In the field of security and freedom, the main target will be the extension of the Schengen area, migration and border controls and the fight against crime. Health issues will remain central, with greater preventive efforts against pandemics. Beyond our borders, we will ensure a proper follow-up to the Doha Round, progress in the stabilisation of the western Balkans – in particular in Kosovo – and completion of partnership agreements with the ACP countries.
As you can see, we will be very busy in 2007. The year 2007 will also see new directions for the second half of the Commission’s mandate. We shall be preparing for the future, with intensive work on the comprehensive review of the Union’s budget leading to a White Paper in 2008-2009. This review needs to be based on a profound reflection and must take the full range of views into account. This will naturally include the European Parliament and I welcome your intention of close association with this process.
Let me also say a few words on our ability to deliver on these priorities. We need to translate them into practical actions and implement them through the most appropriate instruments. The Commission has made progress in this direction. Firstly, we have a strategic planning and programming cycle ensuring an effective and timely delivery of our priorities and concentrating our resources on these tasks. The Commission states its intentions, consults on them, adopts its work programme and reports regularly on its implementation. However, we need to further strengthen the political relevance and substance of our discussion on our strategic planning and programming.
Secondly, we have implemented a range of instruments to promote better regulation and good governance, which I believe is having a real impact on the rigour of our work and the quality of our output. We have made significant efforts to carry out impact assessments on our major proposals. We have completed more than one hundred so far, and we will continue to improve their quality and ensure that they make a real difference in our decision-making process.
The Commission will also carry through its simplification agenda, covering various fields from environment to industry, the modernisation of labour law, the promotion of consumer rights or key internal market sectors. However, let us not forget that governance and better regulation are the shared responsibilities of all the European institutions and the Member States. As I have said before, better regulation is crucially important for liberalising our economic potential, in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises. What our business needs in Europe is a red carpet, not red tape. Efforts must be pursued at all levels to show that European initiatives are well founded and add real value. In many areas – be it at European or national level – we do not need so many regulations.
As Montesquieu said – in the best possible way – and I shall say it in French:
‘
’.
Roughly translated, that means ‘useless laws weaken indispensable ones’. This is the very principle of the good European tradition.
So what are the next steps? The annual policy strategy decision forms the basis for our dialogue in view of preparing the Commission’s work programme for 2007. Every Commissioner now stands ready to discuss with committees the political priorities put forward in her or his area. It is crucial to take time away from the topic of the day in order to prepare for the future. I very much welcomed Parliament’s initiative last year to draw together the threads in its report. That had a real impact on this year’s work programme.
Mr President, honourable members, the Commission puts this strategy forward in a spirit of partnership. I look forward to your views on where Europe should devote its energies in 2007.
The Commission has placed the effective implementation of its policies at the heart of its objectives, but if we are to implement them effectively we need a genuine partnership between the European institutions. The 2005 report shows that the caricature of a Europe in the grip of paralysis was far removed from reality. We have in actual fact made considerable progress. The Commission has focused on its objectives and has achieved a rate of implementation of nearly 90% for its priority actions. The Stability and Growth Pact, the revised social agenda and the sustainable development strategy have been steered in a new direction. Above all, however, I believe that, this week, we will see that the revision of the Lisbon Strategy on employment and growth has been a turning point in terms of finally providing the strategy with the tools it needs to turn aspirations into reality.
The Hampton Court Summit helped achieve a new consensus on the key elements of the Union’s action in a world that is heading in the direction of globalisation. It opened the door to the measures that are emerging today. I am thinking, for instance, of European energy policy and of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund.
The Union demonstrated its ability to respond rapidly to people’s needs after the tsunami and the London bombings. It has also shown that it is capable of working as one body, with the European consensus on development, to which the European Parliament itself also subscribes, being the expression of a genuine common approach. Admittedly, our task is not complete. As far as the financial perspective is concerned, however, I believe that we are closer than ever to reaching an agreement. If we find a solution very soon, then we will still have enough time to get under way with implementing most of the programmes at the start of next year, something that is particularly important for the less wealthy countries and regions of our continent.
As for the future of the European debate, we can still take advantage of the events and make use of that period in order to find a genuine consensus regarding which direction we need to take. I believe that we are on the right track: the annual progress report on the Lisbon Strategy, the Green Paper on energy policy, biofuels, the European Institute of Technology and the road map in the field of gender equality are so many major initiatives that are already on the agenda.
So, what about 2007?
I believe that 2007 will be a crucial year in terms of achieving the strategic objectives set by our Commission for its term of office. Our strategic objectives over five years – prosperity, solidarity and security – and, of course, their influence outside the EU remain fully relevant. They form a coherent political framework designed to guide the action of the European Union. They reflect the challenges facing Europe and the main anxieties of Europeans, which they strive to address. They will remain the cornerstone of the Commission’s action. I believe in fact that they constitute a sound basis from which to re-assess the direction that our Union must take. With the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome coming up in 2007, attention will rightly be focused on the great values and the general objectives of the European Union.
The main target must continue to be sustainable growth to provide more and better jobs in Europe. With a more positive macroeconomic outlook, we must seize every opportunity to accelerate reforms and put them into practice. I know that this Parliament is committed to playing its role in a real partnership for growth and jobs.
In 2007, several Member States should be speeding up their preparations for adopting the euro. Provided they meet the necessary conditions, in 2007 we shall see the accession of Bulgaria and Romania, and I look forward to their contribution to the European Union."@en1
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"Les lois inutiles affaiblissent les lois nécessaires"1
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