Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-13-Speech-2-144"
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"en.20070213.16.2-144"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I do not know whether it was deliberate or accidental, but the day chosen to open the European Council, 8 March, is International Women's Day. It was a good choice on Mrs Merkel's part, and I expect that she will be able to make the most of the day.
I would like to put the European Council back in its historical context: 2007-2010 will, I think, be decisive years, rather like 1954-1957, between the failure of the Defence Community and the relaunch of the European budget by the Treaty of Rome, the 50th anniversary of which we are now celebrating. We have many meetings ahead of us: institutional, budgetary, electoral, with the European elections and perhaps referendums, a review of the Lisbon Strategy, and even meetings on agricultural policy. Therefore, we all need to make a commitment to convince the people and to bring them with us when the time comes.
The people will hear us talk about competition, and they are not opposed to it. They will hear us talk about flexibility in business, and they are not opposed to it as long as workers have security. That said, there is another word I would suggest to you: harmonisation. It seems to have disappeared from our language, although it features in the Treaty of Rome. Environmental harmonisation is getting there – it is making progress. Tax harmonisation has rather ground to a halt with regard to company tax. Social harmonisation is too weak. Be that as it may, I think that we need to send the beautiful music of harmonisation floating to the ears of our fellow citizens. Equally, and like many others, I would like the Council to encourage the Commission to submit a text, a framework directive, on public services.
It is certainly necessary to rebalance the market, even though it is true that nobody here is opposed to it. It would simply be a translation of the meaning that Jacques Delors gave to European integration, or at least of one of his phrases: competition stimulates, cooperation strengthens, but solidarity unites."@en1
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