Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-14-Speech-3-205"
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, at the end of this debate I would like, as a summary, to give an overview of the items and goals that we have tried to coordinate with the Sustainable Development Strategy during our Presidency and on which we now want to reach a decision in the next few days. I would like to give my very heartfelt thanks for your suggestions and also for the speeches and the debates that we have had here together.
Our aim with the Sustainable Development Strategy has been to put sustainable development for Europe at the top of the political agenda and in doing so to make Europe an example for others. We have been keeping all the Council configurations busy, and in recent months we have tried very hard to work through the essential points with the European Parliament and now to present them as a strategy. This strategy is, in our view, the result of very wide-ranging discussions and ambitious negotiations. Seven key challenges with goals and measures have now been clearly set out in the strategy, and this will enable the European Union to confirm even more clearly our role as a frontrunner in international cases. The most important chapter is of course - and this will also enable us to measure, to a certain extent, the success of the Sustainable Development Strategy in the coming years - a strong and clearly structured chapter on implementation, which provides for responsibilities and competences regarding the monitoring of progress in implementation and very clearly addresses all EU institutions and political levels, EU-wide, national, local and regional.
I also regard – and we should do this together – the Sustainable Development Strategy as complementary to the Lisbon Strategy. Both strategies strive, with differing priorities and timescales, towards sustainable development. We want to demonstrate, too, that quality of life and high levels of environmental quality and social cohesion are important factors in safeguarding long term competitiveness. Sustainable development is a central factor in innovation: it creates opportunities and the potential for intelligent growth and better jobs.
Sustainable development is anchored in the treaties; it is an overarching objective for all European policies. It confronts us, however, with huge challenges, above all in institutional terms. On an EU level we do not yet have appropriate structures with which to discuss this horizontal issue in the corresponding committees or to better coordinate the opinions of different committees. During the negotiations on the EU Sustainable Development Strategy we finally attempted an ad hoc solution with the 'Friends of the Presidency' group. At Council level we will be working, until the first review of the strategy, on possible options offering suitable mechanisms for sustainable development. This institutional question concerns all EU institutions equally, and it would give me great pleasure to encourage a dialogue between institutions, one that goes beyond the decision on the Sustainable Development Strategy. We regard the Sustainable Development Strategy not, as it were, as the end of the debate on sustainability in Europe, but as an important starting point in conjunction with the Lisbon Strategy in moving towards sustainable development in Europe.
I would like to thank you once again for your very constructive cooperation, not only – I am saying this as the Austrian Presidency of the European Union nears its end – in the field of sustainability, but also for all of the constructive cooperation between the European Parliament and the Presidency. For me personally and in my areas of competence, discussions have always been very fruitful and successful."@en1
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