Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-18-Speech-1-031"
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"en.20061218.6.1-031"2
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"Mr President, I also wish to join my colleagues in thanking Prime Minister Vanhanen for the work of the Finnish Presidency. I also wish to put on the record once again my thanks to Minister Lehtomäki who, over the last six months, has been so good to all of us here in Parliament and has been most attentive and engaging at all times.
Several things immediately strike me with regard to the Summit. Firstly, as the Prime Minister pointed out, there were no serious headlines highlighting a split or a division amongst the Member States of the European Union. Whilst people may find that boring or dull, it leads to the conclusion that there has been a certain success, because only when there is failure do people put a spin on why the failure happened, to blame somebody else. Therefore there is success concerning the decisions that have been taken. That success is predicated under four Cs: consistency, coordination, cooperation and consensus.
Despite what people may think about using
clauses to do this, that or the other, if the Member States’ governments cannot agree to move forward together, nothing that you try to do is going to make that happen. Likewise, when President Barroso speaks about competitiveness and the actions of the European Commission, of course we must be given leadership and ensure that leadership continues in so many different areas. However, it is a mistake to speak of bringing in tax harmonisation through a back door, when it is clearly not within the powers in the Treaties. Likewise, it is also a mistake to try to link budgetary reform to the adoption of a Constitution or a Constitutional Treaty and to further enlargement, because it sends out the wrong signals with regard to what the European Union should be about.
One of the major successes in the Council’s Conclusions has been the idea of solidarity amongst the Member States concerning our dealings with Russia. Russia’s attempt to use a ban on meat exports from the European Union to try to pick off countries individually for bilateral agreements has given an opportunity to show there is a collective agreement amongst the Member States not to give in to that kind of negotiation. We should treat Russia as an equal partner and an important neighbour but we must not be dominated simply by the strength that one partner has over another in certain areas.
Likewise, with regard to the question of immigration policy, it is not often that I agree with Mr Watson, but I agree with him on the key issue of looking at the core reasons why immigration takes place and why there is so much illegal immigration. Why do people put their lives at risk by crossing thousands of miles of ocean to get to the promised land unless they are running away from something, some horror or danger to themselves?
We have spoken around the issue, but nobody mentions the issue of Darfur and the continuing genocide that is taking place there and the failure of the international community to respond and to react. No matter how much we try to say what a great European Union we are, as the biggest donors of development aid, the largest participation force in the Congo and sending a signal as regards the kind of future world we want to see, we are still failing the people of Darfur who have no voice, who have no country to speak for them and, in fact, have been let down not just by the European Union and the US but by the United Nations itself. Our resolve for 2007 should be to ensure that we will never see that occur again.
Finally, let me put on the record, after Mr Schulz has thanked the interpreters, that I also want to thank them for their work, because it is most important that we are understood. To make sense of what Mr Schulz has to say is even more important, and I appreciate that from them as well.
Mr President, as you are finishing up, I wish to congratulate you on your work and I hope that you will continue your work in Parliament and rise to even greater heights."@en1
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