Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-05-Speech-3-026"
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"en.20060405.4.3-026"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, the President of the European Council, Chancellor Schüssel, spoke of the responsibility that the European institutions have in common, and the President of the Commission has just been talking about actions. Addressing the President of this House in particular, I can say that my impression is that we – by which I mean you three and the whole European Parliament – find ourselves today in a situation in which this sense of community and of shared responsibility for the future of the European Union is making itself felt. It is my profound conviction that this is a good opportunity to restore, by our visible actions, the mindset that makes this European Union appealing to those who live in it, and to do this also with reference to other issues that we are not debating today, such as the Constitutional Treaty, to which we have to find a solution. That is our shared responsibility.
I am very pleased to note that the President of the European Council is working hard, together with us and with the Commission, on the common destiny of Europe, and doing so unspectacularly but with professionalism and efficiency, and sustained by European conviction. People – often wrongly – see Brussels as a symbol of bureaucracy. Success will be ours if we – and on this point it is particularly the Commission that I am addressing – carry the Lisbon process through to a good conclusion, spelling it out that we want less bureaucracy; what we want is a freer internal market, for the stronger the internal market is, the more we will succeed in opening up the market in the European Union – something in which the services directive is an important instrument – with less regulation, fewer subsidies, and more competition, so that we become all the more competitive on global markets. It follows that we must go for fewer laws and more freedom for businesses, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises, for the less bureaucracy and the fewer the costs that small and medium-sized businesses have to bear, the greater the capacity for job creation. That is what matters most of all, for we are not talking here about the economy in the abstract, but about the people of the European Union, and that is why I am glad that the President of the Council has just had something to say about young people, for the worst thing of all, in fact, is for young people to have nothing to look forward to, and that is a state of affairs that we must do everything in our power to prevent.
If I may turn to energy policy, we have heard from the Polish Government, which does not demonstrate much commitment to Europe, that it expects European solidarity in matters of energy policy, and I say that they are right to do so, for this European Union is founded upon solidarity. We need a European energy policy, but what I would also say to the Polish Government is that, if they demand solidarity in this area, we can expect them to display the same solidarity when it comes to the future of the elements, the substance, and the principles of the Constitutional Treaty. Solidarity is not a one-way street, and on it we keep on meeting one another. We need solidarity with one another for the sake of our European future.
As my time is up, let me make one final observation: perhaps we have to give some thought as to how this House and the chairmen of its groups can adequately express themselves; they do not need as long as the President of the Council and the President of the Commission, but we must share out the time properly.
Mr President, this House has just welcomed Alexander Milinkevich. It was my group that expressly invited him to be here today. While we debate energy and the economy, we must never lose sight of the foundations on which we stand, namely our values, human rights and human dignity, which are the reason why we are taking a stand for democracy in Belarus, and it is our doing so that makes our defence of human rights in Europe, and around the world, convincing."@en1
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