Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-29-Speech-3-014"
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"President Borrell, it is a great honour to be here again. I am very grateful for the invitation to exchange views on the future of Europe with all the Members of the European Parliament today. As someone who has spent more than half of my lifetime as a member of parliament, I cherish this renewed opportunity to address the only directly elected, multinational legislative body in the world.
The founding fathers of Europe would be proud to see the Europe of today – what we are and what we bring to our world. However, they would insist that our benchmark must be set not against where we have come from, but rather against what we must still achieve.
Today Europe faces as great an array of challenges as ever, including globalisation, technological change, migration, energy security and terrorism. These challenges have not been dreamed up in Brussels or Strasbourg: they have risen up the Union’s agenda because they are very real and directly relevant to all our citizens. The challenge must not only be met but also addressed in a way which reassures our citizens and responds to their anxieties and aspirations.
The Union, in approaching these issues, is rightly pursuing two broad parallel tracks. In respect of both tracks, the role of the European Parliament will be crucial. On the one hand, we are continuing to reflect on the question of the constitutional treaty and we will return to it next June on the basis of a report by Chancellor Merkel. On the other hand, we are seeking to address the concerns of our citizens in practical ways under the existing Treaties. Both of these tracks are essential. We cannot put practical progress on hold; neither can we wish away the need to provide the Union with a coherent, streamlined basis for addressing the challenges of a new century.
The constitutional treaty is designed to provide a much-needed basis for practical progress; and the practical progress we strive for will continue and contribute to a positive context for reaching agreement on the urgent institutional questions. I would like to address these two twin issues in turn.
Nobody can predict with any certainty what the future holds for the constitutional treaty. There is, of course, no easy answer. I would, however, like to share with you briefly my own reflections and I look forward greatly to hearing your own perceptions in this afternoon’s debate.
A good starting point for trying to evaluate what lies ahead is often to reflect briefly on why and how we got to be where we are today. History is important because it can help us to make wise choices about the future. Since the Irish Presidency had the privilege of bringing the Intergovernmental Conference negotiations to a conclusion, I have a particular awareness of the processes which made that agreement possible. So let me start by recalling what seem to be three fundamental realities about the situation we have reached.
First, it is important to remember that the constitutional treaty was agreed because it was necessary. The need for the substantive provisions has grown rather than diminished. We need its more coherent external policy to meet our growing international responsibilities. We need its subtle, balanced and effective provisions in the area of justice and home affairs to strengthen our fight against crime. We need its more open, comprehensible, democratic and effective procedures, including its significantly enhanced role for the European Parliament. We need its principles and its values.
Moreover, apart from the constitutional treaty’s specific elements, we need it because the long term stability, prosperity and coherence of Europe are of fundamental importance for our people as well as for people beyond our borders.
Second, the process which led to the agreement of the constitutional treaty was long, complex and difficult. The Convention was unprecedented in its openness and achievement. The European Parliament was highly influential at the Convention, which also benefited greatly from the direct involvement of national parliaments. The subsequent IGC involved intensive bilateral and collective negotiations in which the views of each Member State, as well as of the Commission and Parliament, were taken very carefully into account. The process leading to agreement was a comprehensive and inclusive one. I visited every capital, as the President kindly recalled, and everyone was listened to and helped to shape the outcome.
Third, participants were in the end able to accept the outcome of the negotiations because they saw it as a balanced overall package. The institutional provisions in particular were closely interrelated and formed a single whole.
Since I last addressed you in 2004, the constructive influence of the European Parliament in advancing the concerns of Europe’s citizens has continued to grow. Your vision is needed as we face the difficult challenges ahead. I wish you every success, Mr President, for the remainder of your term of office. I also wish your successor well. I wish you continued success and congratulate you on all that you have achieved.
The difficulties of moving forward with the constitutional treaty are significant, but any analysis of what Europe needs, of how we got to where we are today and of the alternatives convince me that the right and realistic option is to return at the appropriate time to the substance and balance of the constitutional treaty. I understand that this is also broadly the view of this Parliament.
In moving forward, we must ensure that the basis for progress must be an inclusive one in which the concerns and views of all are taken into account, including the legitimate concerns expressed by the citizens in many Member States.
Chancellor Merkel will be consulting closely with each Member State and with the institutions. I have no doubt that her report to the June European Council will be soundly based and well judged. However, let me at this stage offer four reflections.
First, we must continue to work to change the context in which we will return to consider the constitutional treaty. This means continuing to address, as effectively as we can, the concerns of our citizens on issues from employment to mobile phone charges, from enlargement to the fight against crime. That is what you, the directly elected representatives of the people of Europe, do so effectively week-in, week-out.
Second, the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome next March offers an important opportunity to highlight for our citizens the achievements and potential of the Union. A succinct, consensual and eloquent declaration on that occasion, in the name of the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament, could represent a very positive element in creating a new context for our wider institutional debate and perhaps also in addressing some of the specific concerns which have arisen in the national debates on the constitutional treaty.
Third, as was the case on previous occasions when European Treaties ran into difficulties at national level, additional elements could be introduced to address concerns that have arisen. Such additions could enrich rather than undermine the substance and balance of the Treaty.
Fourth, the presentation, the length and, in some respects, the nature of the constitutional treaty could also be amended significantly without affecting its basic substance and balance. To give some examples, it could be brought out more clearly that what is involved is a treaty and that, in many respects, it essentially amends rather than replaces the existing Treaties.
For the Irish Government’s part, we remain resolutely and enthusiastically committed, as soon as the situation has been fully clarified, to holding a referendum on the substance of the constitutional treaty. The treaty remains important for Europe, for our people and for those who look to our values.
As I said at the outset, it is essential that Europe also pursue the second track which we have set for ourselves, namely addressing, as best we can under the existing Treaties, the priorities of our citizens. I believe it is important to maintain broadly the distinctiveness of the two tracks. We should be wary of the selective advance application of elements which form part of the balance in the constitutional treaty.
Let us not be unduly pessimistic about what we have achieved so far in terms of practical progress. The European economy is gaining in strength. More people are in work. An enlargement of historic proportions, which not long ago seemed unimaginable, has taken root and has greatly enriched our Union.
We look forward in particular to your visit to Dublin in the days ahead as part of the Forum for Europe, into which we have put an enormous amount of effort. I thank you for your kind remarks about the Forum for Europe. It is not a government body: it represents all the organisations in the country and it is hugely successful. You do us an enormous honour by coming to address it.
But we are not here, at either European or national level, to congratulate ourselves. The successful football club is not the one that focuses on the trophy room: it is the one that focuses on the matches ahead.
One only has to look at the agenda of any of your parliamentary sessions to appreciate the range and depth of the challenges we face. Time requires me to address what seem to be the strategic underlying challenges. Allow me to address briefly five of those challenges.
First, there is the competitiveness challenge. This has many important European dimensions: better regulation, a strong and appropriate competition policy, research and development, the removal of barriers in the internal market, and perhaps above all innovation, in relation to which the proposed European institute for technology can make an important contribution. Our objective should be to make Europe attractive for investment. I have repeatedly stressed to my colleagues in the European Council and to the Commission that Europe is increasingly in competition not within itself but with other parts of the world, notably Asia. The reality of this competition must give urgency as well as direction to the development and implementation of policies at European level.
Our second strategic objective should be to ensure that achieving competitiveness does not threaten the European social model, and that competitiveness and social inclusion are partners, not rivals. This is the key principle underpinning our own national system of social partnership. Our experience of extensive and intensive social dialogue has delivered 18 consecutive years of economic growth, improved living standards and greater social inclusion. In our approach at European level, including where appropriate through legislation, we should reflect the principle that economic and social policies can and should be mutually reinforcing. We must, above all, ensure that solidarity and opportunity are at the heart of the Union and must drive Europe’s future. The test of Europe’s credibility today is whether it can deliver policies which build up solidarity within the European Union and secure opportunities for all our people.
I also strongly believe that we need to give greater substance to the social dialogue at European level. At both European and national level, we must engage the social partners, in particular the trade unions, in a real debate on the reform of the European social model and on the modernisation of labour markets.
Our third strategic challenge is to confront the downsides of globalisation, including cross-border crime, human trafficking, illegal migration, and the scourge of illicit drugs that ruin so many lives. We know about the potential for pollution to trigger calamitous climate change. Of course, the responsibility in many of these areas falls significantly on the Member States. But as long as our climate and our criminals do not stop at the borders between our countries, we must work together to ensure all appropriate action at European level.
Fourth, Europe must play its full role across the range of its external competences. I shall not dwell on this further because I have already highlighted in my introduction the increasingly important role which the Union plays and is expected to play in the international arena. It is, of course, essential that Europe is adequately funded, including in the CFSP area, for addressing its growing responsibilities in the western Balkans, in our wider neighbourhood and further afield, especially towards the poorest who need our support and to whom Europe should continue to strive to be a special friend.
The fifth, and perhaps greatest strategic challenge is – I am sure you would agree – to connect Europe better with its citizens. Of course, this challenge is not unrelated to the other challenges. We can only communicate a positive message if we have a positive message to communicate. But we have to demonstrate clearly that Europe is part of the solution to globalisation, not part of the problem. We have to show that the European social model remains at the heart of increased competitiveness. Our people must not only be secure but also feel secure. We need to act, but we also need to explain what Europe is doing and can do to provide security for our citizens. We have to bring home much more effectively to the public that, through our external policies, we are increasingly and effectively promoting their interests, their priorities and their values. I fully accept that a large part of the responsibility of explaining Europe accurately and fairly falls at national level. It is certainly a priority for my Government.
Respect for diversity can play a particularly important part in connecting the Union with its citizens. I thank you, Mr President, for announcing that today is the first day that Irish will be used and that from 1 January 2007 it will become the 21st language of the European Union.
Nothing could illustrate better the respect which Europe has for the individual character of its Member States than the improved status which Irish will have from 1 January. Ireland is very grateful to Parliament for your support in introducing the new provisions.
Explaining Europe to the public remains probably our greatest challenge, at both European and national level. Therefore, Mr President, I particularly welcome and look forward to this discussion and to discussions with you in the days ahead. You will be visiting a country that has benefited enormously from its membership of the European Union. Some key facts stand out. Since we joined Europe in 1973, our national wealth stood at just 60 per cent of the European average at that stage. Even after accession, we were plagued by emigration, unemployment, high inflation and spiralling debt. These dismal conditions have been completely reversed in recent years.
Allow me, in conclusion, to say that we should not lose sight of the fact that at the heart of our Europe, when it was founded half a century ago, was the determination to bring permanent peace ‘among peoples long divided by bloody conflicts’, as the first Treaty put it. The Union has been resoundingly successful in that aim within our borders. The Union is also an increasingly important factor for stability beyond our borders.
I would like to pay particular tribute to the fact that the European Union has played a crucial role in relation to our peace process in Northern Ireland. The Union has provided not just generous financial support, but also a context and an example. I would like to convey to you today the deep-felt appreciation of the Irish people for Parliament’s valued, consistent and continuing support for peace on the island of Ireland.
In the second half of the 21st century, another generation of Europeans will be living with the consequences of the decisions we take. I hope that, when they cast an eye back to our generation of Europeans, they will be able to conclude that we had the imagination, courage and intelligence to consolidate our unique Union and to provide a solid, comprehensive and consensual basis for taking forward its achievements.
It is an honour to be here, Mr President, and I thank you.
The role of the European Union was vital to all of that. Europe provided invaluable assistance to us at a critical period in our national development. The phrase ‘the Future of Europe’, like so many phrases, has become part of our jargon. But let us recall for a moment the significance of what those words ‘the Future of Europe’ really mean, for ourselves and for the wider world.
For our own people in Europe, as we approach the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, it means consolidating and developing our extraordinary Union – a Union which has been so successful that many now take its success for granted. In a world which knows so much uncertainty, oppression, deprivation and violence, the Union is a bedrock of prosperity, stability and deep-rooted democracy.
The very essence of the European Union – this powerful blend of pragmatism, of patience and vision – was captured by Robert Schuman when he observed that: ‘Europe will not be made all at once, or according to one single plan: rather it will be formed by taking concrete measures which bring about real solidarity.’
Our Union is not, and must never become, an inward looking one. From 1 January we will be a Union of 27 with the very welcome accession of Bulgaria and Romania. We will remain open to further enlargement in line with our commitments, our responsibilities and our principles.
We also have growing responsibilities in relation to the wider international community. It is indeed a paradox that, at a time when we appear to be unsure internally of the precise direction which the future development of our Union should take, our role externally has never been more important or more clear. The wider world increasingly looks to Europe for leadership, for support and for the promotion of our values."@en1
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