Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-18-Speech-1-071"
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"en.20061218.6.1-071"2
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"Mr President, thank you for excusing me from not commenting on absolutely every view put forward and especially with regard to those opinions which were the same as mine. I would nonetheless like to mention one, where the speaker was clearly of another opinion. Mr Farage said that we would like the Union to have more power. That is not the issue here: the Union already has a good deal of competence. The question is that the Union should have the means and tools to exercise its competence. It is always most important in politics, and in any exercise of power, that when you allocate a role and power for something you also have to have the tools to do it. At present, the Council, in particular, does not have these means available to it owing to decision-making and voting systems and requirements of unanimity.
Parliament’s work shows that, despite differences in ideology, it can almost always take decisions by voting, but the votes are generally preceded by very long negotiations, in which compromises are sought and results achieved. I would endorse what Mrs Grossetête said that 2006 has been Parliament’s year in particular. This year has seen perhaps some of the biggest legislative projects of this decade brought to conclusion.
A number of issues were mentioned in this debate that are European in nature and in which the Union has competence in itself, but we also need to be able to make decisions. One of the challenges of the future will be facing us already next year, when a decision must also be taken on the European Institute of Technology. The European Council declared that 2007 should be the year to make a decision on that. The Commission and the Council are going to have plenty of work to do next year regarding this.
With regard to enlargement, I think that we need to focus particular attention on the Western Balkans. Enlargement is a way for the people of the Western Balkans to commit solidly to stability and democracy, and we have time in the Union both to make our own amendments to the Treaty and to continue negotiations on enlargement. We in the Union and the Member States must just take responsibility for ensuring that the negotiations on the Constitutional Treaty reach a conclusion so that the timetable for the European Parliament elections in 2009 can be put in place. If we succeed in this, there are bound not to be any problems with enlargement either.
Mr President, thank you for the privilege of allowing me to be present here in Parliament’s last sitting this year and to witness spirited political dialogue in which ideological hurdles can be surmounted in the name of cooperation. The early part of this debate in particular was evidence of that. We too in Finland have learnt to work closely together across ideological borders at government level too, and it has also been a great pleasure to be involved in this same sort of cooperation here at EU level. My sincere thanks to everyone. One or two specific questions were asked, one of which related to Russian agricultural trade. I believe that the President of the Commission will reply to that."@en1
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