Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-27-Speech-3-014"
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"Allow me to congratulate Chancellor Angela Merkel on what she has achieved.
Let me be very frank about the results of the Council. I think that when we consider the challenges ahead we can really say that the results are excellent. Today in this House it is the time to stress this point. Let us not forget that before this Council we started from a division between 18 Member States that had rectified the Constitutional Treaty and 9 Member States that had not ratified it, and 2 of them explicitly refused the Constitutional Treaty after a referendum. Now all 27 Member States are united around a common mandate for a reform Treaty.
The fact that we managed an agreement is already an outstanding political result and we should be grateful for the willingness of all governments to compromise. Now we should look forward to the ratification process as a great moment of solidarity and unity in Europe and as a historic opportunity to consolidate the enlarged European Union. At the same time, the advances from the Nice Treaty will guarantee a Union with a greater capacity to act to deliver results.
Honestly, the reform Treaty will probably not be an example of the finest poetry, but I have no doubt that it will be a very good example of excellent prose if it is focused precisely on the capacity of the European institutions to act.
I said before the European Council that we really needed to reinforce the European Union’s capacity to act. I believe the reform Treaty will bring important advances to the Union and will reinforce its ability to act. First of all, the Union will be fully consolidated by overcoming the pillar structure and by acquiring a single personality. In this area of capacity to act, I would like to stress in particular three specific points.
First, the most substantial advances are in the area of justice and home affairs. There are more than 40 new cases of qualified majority voting in the reform Treaty. They include external border control, asylum, migration, criminal law and police cooperation. The Treaty will also fully integrate these areas into Community method of decision-making. It is in fact the ‘Communitarisation’ of the third pillar. This is a fundamental reform which will create a true space of freedom, security and justice in Europe and it will be a priority for the rest of the mandate of this Commission. The Union needs the efficiency which more qualified majority voting brings. It is no use having the right policies if they are agreed years too late.
Second, the reform Treaty will offer new possibilities and reinforce legal bases to deal with the challenges of energy policy and climate change. In particular, the Commission is very pleased with the solidarity clause on energy security and agreement to add combating climate change to the Treaty. Energy security and climate change are now core priorities for the Union. It is right that this is reflected in the Treaties.
Third, the reform Treaty will enhance the Union’s cohesion as regards external affairs. In the 21st-century world, it is only by combining the forces of our Member States and of our institutions that we can compete with other leading powers. Our prosperity, our freedom and our security depend on the capacity to compete at a global level, the capacity to promote our interests and our values. Europe will increasingly speak with one voice in diplomatic, security and defence issues in trade, in monetary aid, in development, and as such will be better equipped to defend our values and interests in world politics. We will have the conditions and the instruments to shape globalisation and we cannot miss such a historic opportunity.
But the reform Treaty also addressed other issues, namely in terms of accountability and democratic legitimacy. With the reform Treaty, the Union will reinforce its accountability and democratic legitimacy. Again let me emphasise three cases of clear improvement compared to the Nice Treaty.
First, the European Parliament will have greater participation in the legislative process of the Union by an increase in codecision procedures. Under the new Treaty, the vast majority of European laws will be adopted jointly by the European Parliament and by the Council in full respect of the Commission’s right of initiative.
Second, national parliaments will be more involved in the workings of the Union. This is about subsidiarity and we are for subsidiarity. The new Treaty will amend the protocol on subsidiarity and proportionality. This Commission has always welcomed a greater role for national parliaments. However, the Commission also made clear that involving national parliaments in scrutinising subsidiarity should not undermine the essentials of how the European Union works.
Out of an extremely difficult task a success for Europe has emerged. I should particularly like to pay tribute to the political ambition that the Chancellor showed in insisting on a reform Treaty that gives the Union the instruments it needs to face up to the challenges of the 21st century.
First, any new procedure on subsidiarity would have to respect the Community method and the Commission’s right of initiative.
Second, the European Parliament and the Council should be on an equal footing. Finally, the thresholds regarding majorities should rise to reflect the importance of the procedure.
We managed to secure all our demands and as such to preserve the institutional balance of the Union, while reinforcing the control of subsidiarity.
Third, and in my view this is one of the most important points, the reform Treaty will give legal force to the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The fact that the Charter is legally binding is a powerful symbol of the strong ties that exist between the Union and European citizens. It is also a very good signal and symbol that we are committed to fundamental rights. We cannot promote fundamental rights all over the world and not say that we consider them binding at home.
The Charter is not, and was never intended to be, a Charter of the rights of European institutions above the Member States. The Charter is for European citizens and the rights of the citizens against any power that could limit those rights. The Charter will be a safeguard, both for European citizens and for national institutions, and will be a central part of the system of checks and balances in our Union of law, because that is what makes us different from many other projects: we are a Union based on law.
I have always said that a step back from the existing
would be unacceptable. This is particularly important in respect of the single market. The results of the European Council were entirely positive from the Commission’s point of view, specifically from the point of view of the Commission’s competence. The protocols on services of general interest and on the internal market and competition, both proposed by the Commission, guarantee a fair and undistorted functioning of the single market, while respecting legitimate concerns expressed by some Member States.
Before concluding, I should like to warn against the temptation of a perverse alliance between those who resist a political Europe and those who oppose the single market. To those who support an open and global Europe, I say that they will only get this if they support political integration. Without political power, Europe will never be able to shape globalisation and to defend its interests and values in the world. Europe will never be able to defend its commitment to an open economy and to open societies.
To those who accept a strong political Europe, but are not as enthusiastic about economic integration, I say that they will only get that strong political Europe if they support the single market and economic integration.
We should salute Chancellor Merkel and the entire German Presidency team for battling with such determination to achieve their aims and for bringing the negotiations to a successful conclusion. These congratulations apply not only to the result of the June Summit but also to the many successes that the German Presidency has achieved in the course of the last six months.
We cannot defend the European project by attacking the single market and trying to fragment what has been one of the greatest achievements of our integration in Europe.
After the success of the European Council, there are now two crucial stages ahead. First we must finalise the IGC and sign the reform Treaty. The IGC will begin next month and the Portuguese Presidency aims to conclude it in October. I fully support this. Member States must then ratify the Treaty, and meanwhile, we must explain to the European public why this Treaty will be a necessary and positive step forward. Such a narrative will be a central part of the Commission’s opinion ahead of the IGC. I also know that this House is already working hard on its opinion.
I certainly hope that the European Parliament and the Commission can continue to work closely together on spreading the message that this reform is indispensable for meeting the challenges of the 21st century and delivering better results to European citizens. I believe that European citizens are the real beneficiaries of the reform Treaty.
We can honestly say that Europe is fully on track.
I believe it is useful to remember where we were some time ago. Let me step back from the events of last week and look back over the last two years. Just over a year ago the Commission adopted an approach which I called ‘the twin-track approach’. The first track was for the European Union to use the existing Treaties more effectively to deliver results for Europe’s citizens. We have done this, for example through our package of measures on energy and climate change; through our focus on innovation; through our drive against red tape; through legislation which delivers practical benefits for consumers, such as the legislation we proposed on roaming, which was signed before us here today. I want to thank this House for its support for those initiatives.
The second track was to return to the process of treaty reform. That is why we suggested the idea of the Berlin Declaration. That was a great moment to reaffirm our interests and our values in the 21st century. I believe that the discussion on the Berlin Declaration was an important time to gather the necessary support which made it possible to achieve good results at the recent European Council.
We are therefore honoured to say that the path we have been suggesting over the different presidencies of the Council was followed. How was that possible? Because the twin-track approach was the right approach. We cannot give our citizens the impression that we are just talking about institutions: we have to concentrate on practical results for our citizens, and governments and citizens will have the confidence to tackle sometimes very difficult institutional issues
they have the confidence that the institutions can deliver when it comes to the concerns of the European citizens – growth and employment, and Europe’s new agenda: energy, climate change and security.
The recent Eurobarometer is encouraging: support for European Union membership and the perceived benefits of membership have improved considerably over the last two to three years. In fact they are the best results in terms of support for the European Union since 1994. That is why we have done – and we should do – everything we can not to miss the opportunity to reinforce the commitment to this great European project now that we are 27 states and almost 500 million citizens."@en1
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