Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-18-Speech-2-023"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20071218.5.2-023"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to thank the Portuguese Presidency for its honest and openly pro-European effort over these six months, and I also think that probably not all but some of the deficiencies that were also pointed out by Mr Watson are more the responsibility of the team than of the Presidency in that, since you cannot get blood out of a stone with the Council we have, it is rather difficult to achieve much more important results. I wanted, very briefly, to mention the three priorities of the Presidency and then make a quick comment on the subject of climate change as part of environmental issues.
On the subject of the Treaty of Lisbon, I believe – as you know, Mr President – that our group has always thought that had we taken a less defensive attitude, it would not have been left solely to the anti-Europeans to define the agenda. I think that what Prime Minister Gordon Brown did was a scandal, and the way he treated all of you and also all of us I think was equally scandalous. I think that we should no longer extend patience towards them and I also think that the way the United Kingdom, but also the other Member States, have got practically everything they wanted in relation to the Treaty of Lisbon, which represents a step backwards with respect to the Constitution or the Constitutional Treaty, should be something that should really make us reflect on the future of Europe.
From this point of view, the mandate of the Reflection Group is no big deal, it seems to me, let us be serious! Because it cannot do this, it cannot do that and it cannot do the other! I say this because my group agrees with Spinelli, the only wise man, the only sage of the European institution and the European Parliament; it also suits me that this group of wise men cannot do much, though I do not really know what the Chairman, Felipe González, can do with his mandate, but we will obviously read his work with great interest.
On the question of Brazil, our basic puzzlement lies in the fact that nobody is focusing any more – or nobody is appearing to focus any more – on the regional dimension of our strategic relations with this part of the world and exactly the same could be said about Africa. I would like to know – you said you did not have time to say – but what is the strategic content of this partnership with Brazil really, in concrete terms? Frankly, it seems to me and to my group that the only thing to emerge clearly is that the European Union’s interest in Latin America, and in Brazil in particular, is the interest of its businesses, some more than others.
Yet we wanted a clear strategy towards Latin America aimed at reviving the dimension of regional integration and defining a policy focused on greater collaboration on climate change, that did not simply turn out to be relatively empty support for President Lula’s marketing of bioethanol.
As regards Africa, I must say that my group has always been very critical of an approach, of a policy that is stubbornly ideological, as it has been particularly on the part of the Commission, regarding the economic partnership agreements. This
approach concerns us, in that since the African dimension is failing, as our partners have said very clearly, an attempt is being made to reach a bilateral agreement with each of the African countries individually.
This puts me in mind of what the United States did with the International Criminal Court: it is negative and wholly goes against our values as regards development policy. The economic partnership agreements are not an instrument of development policy, and I believe our African partners have told us this loud and clear.
Finally, Mr President, I wanted to thank the Presidency, but also the Commission, for the work done in Bali, but I think that the hardest part will come now, with the translation of all the commitments we made on climate change into laws and regulations. It is great to go and put on a good show and really stand firm in Bali, but then we also need to stand firm within the European Union with clear laws and regulations on this."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples