Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-14-Speech-3-080"
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"en.20070314.4.3-080"2
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"Mr President, thank you very much for your predominantly positive assessment of the Spring Summit of the Heads of State or Government. Mr Lambsdorff, I wish to say to you that for me and for the German Government neither the Summit nor the positive comments are cause for complacency. However, I remain convinced that, nonetheless, a degree of confidence is necessary for the remainder, the second half, of our Presidency, or at least it will do no harm. Or to put it another way: at a time when Europe is after all not in the best of health, or let us say is stagnating – now that the renewal process has come to a standstill – anyone who does this job without ambition, without desire, without faith in the ability of Europe to reform and change should not in my view even bother starting such a job at all.
We need to show – as we did at the last Summit, and there I agree with Mr Verheugen – that the European Union is not a historical seminar but a workshop for the future. We have provided an example of this.
I can assure you that even before our Council Presidency had begun and certainly once it had started I was repeatedly asked many times, particularly by journalists: how do you actually intend to achieve this programme? With a view to the first Summit they also asked: how can you actually succeed in brokering an agreement when the positions of the Member States are so far apart?
I do not believe that it is such a great secret. You are all familiar with this from your work. You need a great deal of patience, particularly with those partners who have doubts, who are hesitant about certain outcomes. You need the necessary ambition and above all you need to be fair, particularly towards those who will find it much more difficult than others to reach the targets agreed. This worked at the last Summit. Now of course the same questions are being asked about 25 March. How is it actually supposed to work when there are such varied interpretations of the history of the European Union, when expectations about the content of the Berlin Declaration differ so greatly? I tell you, it will happen in just the same way.
In the past we have listened patiently and I think we know more or less what people’s expectations are. I am only saying this because earlier someone said that the outcome would then of course necessarily be very general. If we succeed in having a Berlin Declaration then this success does not necessarily have to be a reason for banality. The result that emerges can also be a good Berlin Declaration. If we succeed in taking this step it still will not be the solution, but it will not be the end of our Presidency either, and neither will it be the end of our ambition. But it is an important second step towards the solution that will hopefully be achieved at the June Summit, when we will try to untangle the knot that is at present still stopping the European renewal process from moving forward. I can assure you that when we prepare for the June Summit we will do whatever we can to achieve this.
I should like to make a few final comments on energy and climate. Many Members have rightly pointed out that this Summit does not of course mean that our work is complete. All I can do is confirm this and say: yes, further work is needed in many areas. I have mentioned energy research; I have mentioned strengthening our energy relationships with third countries, and of course this also applies, Mr Verheugen, to the ambitious target for renewable energies. The 20% is now our European target and we have always said, even to the outside world, that it is now a question of converting this European target into national targets.
Apart from the fact that I am convinced, Mr Verheugen, that we will achieve this together, all I want to say to you here is that the Commission and the Presidency obviously discussed whether we should have gone down the opposite route, first agreeing national targets and then deriving a European target from these.
However, both of us – the Commission and the Presidency – were sure that we would probably have discussed this for another five years and still would not have identified a common target. That is why we agreed on this approach. It was pointed out that we Europeans ultimately cannot rescue the world’s climate on our own. We need to keep an eye on how energy and climate policy develops in important countries such as the United States, China and India. Someone voiced the suspicion that this was precisely what we would not be concerned about. I simply want to say that the opposite is true, and I am saying this for Europe, I am saying it for our national German policy, and I am saying it in particular for our G8 Presidency.
On Monday I will be in Washington and by arrangement with my American colleague I will be opening a major, joint event there involving German and American companies, with whom we will be discussing how we can strengthen the transatlantic technology partnership, particularly in the field of the energy economy. In the context of the efforts being made in the United States, I would point out that below the federal level exemplary work is already being done on climate and energy policy in many US states.
On China I wish to say only that we have it firmly in our sights. In the context of the G8, both at summit level and at foreign ministers’ level, ‘outreach’ meetings are going to be held, to which not only China and India are invited but also Mexico, South Africa and Brazil, and at both meetings – both at the foreign ministers’ level and at summit level – the issues of energy and climate will play a central role. As you see, we are also concerned about those who do not belong to the European Union."@en1
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