Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-28-Speech-3-092"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20071128.16.3-092"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
". −
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen
As Spaniards, we owe a great deal to Europe and we initially joined this project with a profound sense of gratitude which I want to reiterate today before the European Parliament.
No one can be surprised then that we approved the Constitutional Treaty in a referendum. Likewise, no one can be surprised that we exercised all our goodwill and flexibility to overcome the institutional crisis, at the same time as remaining firm, coherent and tenacious in terms of preserving the basic content, without which the project itself would have been devalued.
We overcame the danger but we still have a challenge before us: the challenge of building the Europe that we need and that the world in the 21st century needs.
We want a Europe of values. The European identity has been forged over a long history darkened by tragedy, but also illuminated by humankind’s most noble creations, by the light of thought, the warmth and creativity of our artists, the deep convictions of our statesmen and women and the courage of our people.
Freedom, the rule of law, human rights, tolerance, gender equality, solidarity, all these form the moral code of Europe. It is here, in adhering to these values and not simply to a geographical space, that the true essence of our Union lies.
Our Europe must have real political substance. Only in this way can we build a Union in line with our ambitions.
If we want to achieve this Europe, it necessarily has to be effective. It has to be a Union capable of tackling the challenges of our time head on.
Europe’s source of legitimacy and its ultimate destination are its people. Among the world’s citizens, we Europeans enjoy the most rights and are the best protected. However, we are not a island and we cannot live happily knowing that these rights do not exist or are being violated in other parts of the world. We have a moral duty to ensure that everyone can enjoy these rights. It is this moral duty that gives Europe a mission in the world.
This Europe of values with effective political substance, backed by its people, is also the Europe we need. In a changing and ever more complex world, we must pursue integration. If we give way to isolationism, a narrow view of our borders and the primacy of national interests, we will inevitably become powerless and irrelevant.
As a committed and active pro-European and as Prime Minister of a deeply pro-European country, it is a matter of great pride to me to appear today before this Parliament, the most representative House of Europe.
It is now time to join forces and rekindle our enthusiasm. We were hearing with increasing frequency that Europe was in crisis, that it doubted itself, that its people felt remote from its project or that enlargement was going to dilute the determination of the political Union.
I did not share this pessimistic view. We have experienced these difficult situations before and we have always come out stronger on the other side. Jean Monnet said that people only accept change when they are faced with necessity and only recognise necessity when a crisis is upon them. Forced by necessity, we have made changes which will be very fruitful.
I highly value the process that has led us to the approval of the new Treaty. It has not been easy. We are developing a brand new model in the history of political civilisation and are gradually making progress on the concrete realities that Schuman talked about. It is quite logical that on occasions we might need more time to take decisions. Yet we are already seeing the fruits of our labour.
It is only fair to acknowledge the extraordinary contribution of this Parliament. For Spain, which has fought to maintain the pro-European sense and the balance of the Treaty, the support of this House has been encouraging and decisive.
During the negotiations, Europe has kept moving forward. We will soon have the new instruments provided for in the Treaty, together with the important expansion of the range of issues on which a decision can be taken by qualified majority, in order to find solutions to the concerns of our people.
Now more than ever, Europe must be a beacon of progress and welfare. We can no longer delay opening up and modernising our economies. We must endeavour to achieve the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy. This must be our principal and immediate point of reference for tackling the demands of globalisation in its dual external and internal dimensions.
We must be ambitious. Experience has taught us that, when we are, we tend to do well. The extraordinary impact of the introduction of the euro, which is now being extended to new Member States, clearly shows us the potential possibilities if we continue to increase our integration. We must finish developing the internal market in goods, services and networks and we must strengthen the institutions responsible for monitoring competition to ensure its proper functioning.
In its external dimension, Europe must play a leading role in developing fair rules for globalisation. We must increase the transparency and openness of our markets and support those markets of our non-Community partners in a context of fair competition. We must drive forward the Doha Round. We must set an example in the promotion of international trade.
The globalised world requires us to make a special effort in technical innovation and research, to take maximum advantage of the extraordinary potential of our scientists and universities and to combine excellence with territorial cohesion. Our model of effective integration means that all Member States should have equal access to new technologies.
We want to make progress in social welfare. Ours is a social Europe, a Europe of social rights.
Here the rich variety of our nations comes together. Here we express our identities, starting from diversity to arrive at what unites us. If there is one institution that emphatically embodies the soul of our project, then it is this House as it is here that the direct wishes of our European citizens are heard.
Our economic model is inconceivable without fairness, and fairness cannot be achieved without protection. Our success must be measured by our capacity to keep growing while ensuring solidarity and cohesion.
We must promote stable and dignified employment, help our workers adapt to changes in the productive system and be champions of policies of social inclusion, equal opportunities, safety at work and health guarantees for our citizens.
This new, ever larger Europe will only be successful if we reinforce solidarity among all the Member States. Cohesion is a fundamental principle, particularly due to the commitment that we have all entered into and due to the need to create decisive ties to ensure the political integration of the Union.
Spain, which has benefited greatly from Community solidarity, is in favour of the new Member States also being able to enjoy this benefit and is willing to share its experiences so that they can make good use of this solidarity.
Europe is now immersed in a process of great strategic import: the creation of a common area of freedom, security and justice, the development of the Schengen Area and the system of external borders. There can be no better evidence of our mutual trust than the pooling of security for which those Member States with an external border have assumed particular responsibility. Spain has always been at the forefront of these initiatives and will continue to support them with the utmost determination.
I want to underline the importance of reinforcing European immigration policy. Immigration is a reality which has already had an impact on the European agenda; this impact will become even greater as it affects certain very sensitive aspects of our project.
We must start by unequivocally acknowledging the positive potential of immigration, which ranges from population support to the invigoration of cultural diversity, not forgetting the potential boost to our economies which has been very clear in the case of Spain.
We must favour integration policies that respect rights and require obligations. A Europe that ensures this integration will be more worthy, more free and more secure.
At the same time we must act on the causes behind migration. We should do this through dialogue and effective cooperation with the countries of origin and transit.
This House has gradually become more solid and better equipped and now comfortably accommodates the vast European family. However, it has also become stronger and more demanding because, as its representativeness has grown, so too has its capacity, first to guide and then to control all our policies and actions.
We must reinforce solidarity among the Member States and equip ourselves with the appropriate resources to effectively control the external borders. Spain has developed measures which are being successfully applied, but much remains to be done. We must strengthen the European Border Management Agency, improve our cooperation on the ground and put out of action those mafias which take advantage of the vital and urgent need of these men and women to escape from their lives of misery and frustration.
We are faced with the major challenge of preventing and combating terrorism and organised crime. We must be more ambitious in our police and judicial cooperation. Spain, as a result of its own painful experiences, knows only too well the vital need for joint action and will always be at the forefront of this policy.
Through new initiatives and by leading by example, Europe must seek to develop multilateral responses to global problems. We are already doing this in the fight against climate change, with our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by the year 2020. We can and must lead the way, establish Europe as a reference and encourage a new consensus in the negotiations that will start in Bali in December.
We have a huge task ahead of us in the field of energy. Spain advocates a proper energy policy with a transparent single market and guaranteed supplies at the lowest environmental cost. In our opinion, we can only have a credible European energy policy if we develop a well-articulated system of interconnections between all the Member States.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen
We are a global player because we are not just a project for Europeans. We will not fully achieve our goals if we only defend our own interests. We will only achieve these goals if we project our values onto the international stage and if we consolidate our Union as an area of peace, stability and solidarity.
The success of our integration will be measured to a large extent by what we mean to others, by the meaning that our voice has for the entire world. The future needs Europe more than ever. We must not aspire to have the world look at our great history, but at our open future.
With the new Treaty, we will have effective instruments for our common foreign policy. The institutions of the President of the Council and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and the reallocation of competences and resources will give this policy greater emphasis and continuity.
We can also use the experience of recent years in which we have equipped ourselves with civil and military crisis management capabilities and successfully deployed in the most challenging places such as the Congo or Bosnia.
We are therefore, ladies and gentlemen, in exactly the right place to discuss the Europe we want to see and the Europe we need. I must therefore thank you for giving me this opportunity to set out my thoughts and proposals on the present and future of the Union.
We are the leading donor of development and humanitarian aid. This is not only because of our concept of dignity, humanist roots and sense of justice, but also because of our own interests. Only shared development and fairness in the world can guarantee security in such challenging times.
In these times of profound changes in the international situation, Europe must increase its legitimacy as an area of integration and democracy and develop its capacity to achieve consensus at international level.
The new Europe cannot be seen as isolated from its neighbours to the east and south. Our prosperity has to go hand-in-hand with theirs. We must make our voice heard and listen to theirs in order to engage in fruitful dialogue together.
We are very committed to our relations with the countries around the southern rim of the Mediterranean. In these relations we must reaffirm the true dimension of Europe: the Europe that is interested in everything that others have to contribute, that respects differences, that offers its values without imposing them and that develops partnerships within the framework of the new neighbourhood policy.
The widest income gaps on the planet exist between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean and it is in that region where deeply entrenched conflicts still persist. Yet it is also true that the societies in northern Africa are young and dynamic and that their political systems are gradually opening up allowing significant freedom. Relations with the Islamic world, in which Europe must follow a path of dialogue and partnership, will be marked by the image that we portray in this region.
We must take advantage of the next EU-Africa Summit to address the justified and pressing demands of this suffering continent which is near to us and yet at the same time remote and which is knocking anxiously on our door. We must take action to keep its people in their own lands, to support them in their aspirations to live and prosper there.
We can also offer a European approach to the major challenges on the international stage: for example, in the Middle East peace process and relations with the Islamic world, in the fight against international terrorism, in nuclear non-proliferation, in the strategic relationship with Russia and the major Asian countries, in respect for human rights and the expansion of democracy, in the fight against hunger and poverty, in generalising access to education and health, and in social cohesion.
We must increase our active presence in all geographical areas of the planet by encouraging other integration processes. Please allow me at this point to highlight, as an example, the importance of expanding our relations with Latin America and driving forward negotiations on association agreements between the Union and the various Latin American regional groups.
We must make a decided commitment to multilateralism and reinforce the central role of the United Nations in efforts to mediate and participate in conflict resolution. It is also vital that the Union makes progress in defining a common defence policy which will enable it to participate actively and independently in the preservation of international peace and security under the mandate of the United Nations.
Development of the necessary civil and military capabilities, European Union Battlegroups, rapid response force initiatives and European Defence Agency programmes constitute important advances which are, however, still inadequate.
The concept of Europe is associated by Spaniards with our desire for peace, freedom, democracy and prosperity.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen
I wanted to share with you some basic aspects of my vision of Europe and the goals which, in my opinion, we should now set with a view to the future. I have tried to talk about Europe from Spain. Please allow me now briefly to talk about Spain from Europe.
The policies implemented by my government in recent years have borne the same hallmark as the European priorities.
We are going through a period of economic growth, every day opening up more and introducing reforms along the lines of the Lisbon Strategy. In 2007 we have already achieved one of the two main objectives of our National Reform Programme, namely to achieve an employment rate of 66%, and we will achieve the second objective, namely to fully converge with European per capita income, before 2010, the date initially planned.
We have made a firm commitment to training human resources, providing infrastructures and expanding communication technologies. In this way we are helping to make Europe’s economy one based on knowledge which is competitive in the information society.
Our social model has become richer and stronger. We have healthy public finances, with a surplus of around 2% of gross domestic product, decreasing public debt and a consolidated social security system.
Employment in Spain has grown spectacularly – three million new jobs in the last four years – and jobs have become more stable. We are making progress through agreements with labour and are enjoying the period of greatest harmony in labour relations since the beginning of our democracy.
We have started to implement a social policy by establishing the right to care for those who are disabled and dependent. This will henceforth form a new pillar of the welfare state.
Sustainability has become a vital part of our growth model. In 2006 we managed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the first time, while still enjoying intense economic growth. We are committed to Bali as we are to Kyoto.
Spanish citizens now enjoy more rights, such as greater social influence, equality between men and women, now fully developed and guaranteed by law, and, very significantly, same-sex marriages which are recognised as equal to all others and which dignify us all as a society.
Our best traditions connect with the values with which we identify the European cultural and political space.
Spain has supported multilateralism and will continue to do so. Spain has supported the European Union and the European institutions and will continue to do so.
As we have done in recent years, we will continue to increase our development cooperation so that we are among the ten leading countries in the world in terms of the percentage of our gross domestic product that we give to development aid. We will keep increasing this so that, within the next four years, 0.7% of our gross domestic product will be devoted to development aid, to bringing solidarity and dignity to millions of people around the world.
Mr President
For a long time we were only able to say that, if Europe advanced, Spain would do so too. I believe that I can now say today, with both pride and humility, that if Spain continues to advance as it has done, Europe will too.
I am totally convinced that Europe will exceed our expectations. We can rely on the extraordinary capability of all its institutions, particularly this Parliament. At the most difficult times, ladies and gentlemen, the European Parliament has always proved to be a defence against pessimism and a courageous and tireless champion of European integration. Today I want to thank you very particularly. Your proposals and debates have influenced the major reforms of the Union during all these years.
In this House, among all of you, Europe can be felt with greater force than in any other place. Europe lives here with more hope and more confidence.
I therefore want my final words to express Spain’s recognition, and my own personal recognition, of the prestige and work of this House and of the labour of those men and women of all ideologies and from all countries who, through the various legislatures, have enabled us, from these benches, to achieve the Europe of today and to prepare for the Europe of tomorrow.
We have successfully overcome the recent danger. Now we must tackle the many other challenges that await. We must look firmly to the future and work together to quickly bring about the Europe that we need and, above all, the Europe that the world needs.
Many thanks.
For many years we kept alive the hope of us joining this process started more than 50 years ago.
The success enjoyed by Spain in the last two decades stems to a large extent from the social dynamism created by our membership of the Union and from our effective use of the means placed at our disposal by the solidarity of the members who preceded us in this project."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples