Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-12-Speech-3-041"
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"en.20071212.2.3-041"2
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"Mr President, I am pleased that the Lisbon Treaty is to be signed tomorrow. This will end a period of some uncertainty in which outsiders perceived the Union as suffering from a certain paralysis. I therefore congratulate the Portuguese Presidency.
Once the Treaty is signed, I hope there will be no reason to sit back. It is a time for the Union, and hence the European Council, to look outward and to be decisive in tackling the problems faced by citizens. I will single out three.
Economic growth: the European Council must not become complacent. The signs are not good: the euro is fairly strong, making exports difficult; inflation is falling; the dollar is fairly weak and oil continues to be expensive. All the studies – the most recent being that of the OECD – are lowering their forecasts of economic growth in Europe for 2007 and 2008.
Secondly, illegal immigration: this is a serious problem which the Conference of Euromed Ministers, among others, has been trying to tackle during this six-month period. In the action plan approved at the Africa Summit I also saw references to readmission agreements and other instruments, but will those undertakings be honoured? How long has the European Union been negotiating readmission agreements with certain Mediterranean countries?
Moreover, illegal immigration does not just depend on cooperation with third countries; we too need to fulfil our commitments, for example with respect to FRONTEX. Furthermore, the effective enlargement of Schengen, which the European Council is to confirm on Friday, also means extended external borders. I hope that the authorities and officials responsible for those new borders will be up to coping with the illegal immigration network.
Finally, terrorism: the threat persists. There are the recent threats from Al Qaeda leaders; there are yesterday’s bloody attacks in Algiers; and I would remind you of what happened in France last week with ETA.
I am pleased that, during the Portuguese Presidency, there have been efforts to fill the post of European counter-terrorism coordinator, which has been inexplicably vacant for over six months. If by chance there was a lack of powers or resources, the reform of the Treaty was surely a lost opportunity to strengthen this post.
Finally, I hope that the European Council will insist on rapid processing of the recent Commission proposal to amend the framework decision on terrorism to include condoning as an offence."@en1
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