Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-19-Speech-2-204"
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"I am very pleased to be taking part in this session, in which the European Parliament is debating the start of the next phase of the Lisbon strategy for growth and employment.
The ECOFIN Council unanimously adopted the decision not to modify the broad economic guidelines. What are being modified are the explanatory texts, that is to say the context in which the guidelines are set.
The European Council will adopt the specific recommendations of the Member States relating to their progress in the implementation of the national reform programmes. It will call on the participants, namely the Council, the Commission and Parliament, to implement the Community’s Lisbon programme.
It will promote a few key activities and targets in four priority areas. Those four areas reflect, firstly, Europe’s concern for the environment; secondly, Europe’s concern for humans and their position in society; thirdly, efforts to develop a more enterprising Europe; and, fourthly, efforts to allow a more innovative and creative Europe, on which everything else is actually based. Allow me to briefly address each of these four areas.
I place creativity alongside education and innovation. Europe must translate its rich cultural tradition and ethical assets into a competitive advantage for its products. We must continue to strive for the target of 3% investment in research and development. Knowledge must become the fifth freedom. We need a unified knowledge area where there is open access to knowledge, where open innovation is supported and, of course, where knowledge is appropriately protected by European patent and copyright. It should be possible to improve coordination between European research and development policies and national policies.
We Europeans must become more enterprising. We lack highly innovative and creative small companies. We must therefore pay more attention to the creation and development of small and medium-sized enterprises and their access to knowledge and research infrastructure, as well as to sources of capital funding.
We must strengthen the internal market, especially in service and networking industries, and abolish various hidden barriers. A strong and effective internal market is also a much better defence against the effects of globalisation than the temptation of protectionism. It is necessary to increase the transparency of financial markets, improve legislation and reduce administrative burdens.
We in Europe must preserve the tradition of offering our people care and solidarity. Flexible security makes it possible to seek dynamically for a balance between the economy, which requires an efficient labour market, and the security that means that people will quickly find new employment.
We must therefore provide lifelong education and other support. In particular, we must ensure that young people complete some kind of education and find employment as soon as possible. The older generation must be encouraged to stay active as long as possible.
Finally, we in Europe care about nature and the environment. Europe must take the lead in the process referred to by some as the third industrial revolution, the essence of which is to shift to a low-carbon economy. I am convinced that it will be profitable for Europe’s economy, because Europe will be the world leader in the technologies of the future. We need political agreement on the energy and climate package by the end of this year.
Ladies and gentlemen, we need a decisive push for the new phase of the Lisbon strategy, in order to make Europe a more dynamic, creative and enterprising knowledge-based society, which cares for people and the environment. We urgently need to reflect on the strategic framework of European development after 2010 and the possible convergence of the Lisbon strategy and the Strategy for Sustainable Development.
The signing of the Treaty of Lisbon concludes an era in which we were greatly occupied with our own internal and sometimes political shape. Europe is now considerably better equipped to open itself up to the world, and the Lisbon strategy provides the tools for Europe to help in the shaping of world trends as well. The present moment is characterised by at least four of these trends.
As Mark Leonhard wrote, this century will be the century of Europe, not because Europe will lord it over the whole world in a colonial fashion, nor even because it will have the most powerful industry. This century may become the century of Europe because the world will be dominated by European values and creativity, that is to say those two elements by which world trends are essentially shaped. European creativity is supported by Europe’s brilliant cultural tradition. European values (as neighbours we cooperate with each other in solving disputes and caring for nature and man) are an example to the whole world. Therefore, we must not forget these deeply human starting points when we consider the economic and social future of our Union, that is to say our strategy for growth and employment.
When Europe launched the Lisbon strategy in 2000, globalisation was mainly understood to be a competition between Europe, the USA and Japan. Since then, new and important players have entered the world stage and are giving us cause to reflect anew on the contribution that Europe can make to this global world and where its true competitive advantages lie.
The communications revolution is happening before our very eyes, with the Internet and the World Wide Web. Creativity and innovation are no longer restricted to rigid institutional schemes. Only once in the past have we witnessed a revolution in mass communication; that was 500 years ago when cheap paper and print came along, forming the foundation of European supremacy.
We are on the threshold of a third industrial revolution, the consequence of which will be significantly reduced dependence on fossil fuels and transition to a low-carbon economy. In May 2007, Parliament adopted a declaration on the third industrial revolution and hydrogen economy, thereby demonstrating Europe’s support for the leaders in this field.
Following the industrial era we are entering a conceptual era where values, meaning and empathy will come to the fore. The red thread of these trends is the growing importance of the creative potential of the people and their values. These are two topics which, of their nature, are very European. That is why Europe has an ambition to be a co-designer of, and leader in, these four trends.
European ideas about development are framed by the Lisbon strategy for growth and employment. Following a fundamental review in 2005, the effectiveness of the Lisbon strategy was confirmed. Structural reforms have improved the foundations of the European economy. That is why it is easier to deal with crises in the financial markets and rising raw material prices, especially crude oil and food prices. The world economy is heading into ever-increasing uncertainty. It is therefore important that Europe should stick to its course and continue to implement reforms and modernise its economy and society.
The Commission did good work in preparing the Lisbon package published in December. Slovenia, as President of the European Council, has placed the Lisbon strategy among the five priorities of its Presidency. We are very pleased that the European Parliament is taking part in the broad debate in the next phase. We have already had an exchange of opinions in ECON consultations, among the Three and in interparliamentary meetings. We are all doing our best to enable the spring session of the European Council in March to launch this ambitious new phase of the Lisbon strategy.
The European Council will endorse the broad economic-policy guidelines and adopt the conclusions on employment policies. The need to modify the broad guidelines was discussed at length. In the end, colleagues from most Member States agreed that we could improve on some formulations, but putting forward the actual guidelines for discussion would initiate a long period of harmonisation and slow down the transition to the new phase, although the final result would be very similar to what is in front of us now."@en1
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