Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-11-Speech-2-047"
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"en.20080311.7.2-047"2
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"Mr President, I want to thank all of the Members for their contributions to the debate. I think that, together with the resolution that you will adopt and the dialogue with committees and respective Commissioners, this will provide a very good political input into the work programme for next year. This is what I have always argued for: a more political approach to the APS.
We will deliver results from the Lisbon Treaty. We will be reforming the budget, we will focus on growth and jobs, and we will have energy and climate change. This will guide many of our communication priorities, and we hope for a lively debate on this European policy.
Finally, let me also draw your attention to the proposal to have an interinstitutional agreement on communication. We hope this will provide a much better framework for our work together in this field, so thank you again for the debate. We will have a follow-up on all of this and also the details that you have mentioned, which I think belong more to the dialogue between committees and Commissioners.
I would like to comment on a few issues that have been raised here, which I think are very important.
First, concerning the Lisbon Treaty: as you know, the Commission is fully committed to this new Lisbon Treaty; we are fully committed to its implementation, and we are preparing – not anticipating, but preparing – to be ready for implementation as from early next year. We are focusing, for example, on the citizens’ initiative, mentioned by several speakers; the implementation of the new provisions for working with national parliaments; the accession to the European Convention on Human Rights, and also the external action service, just to mention a few of the things that need good preparation without anticipating. This is the balance we will have to strike. I hope there are no doubts about our commitment to the Lisbon Treaty.
We also engage – and this is very important – in the communication and information activities concerning this new Treaty because, regardless of the method of ratification, we have a democratic obligation to engage with citizens by informing them, by listening, and also by explaining what we are doing and the content of this new Treaty.
Regarding the political agenda and the balance between the social and economic agendas, also mentioned by several speakers, I think that this is a very important debate, and these are precisely the questions we will have to take through the dialogue with the committees. Clearly, there are different emphases and priorities here on the different sides of this House. I think this has to be dealt with in the resolution, which we look forward to; the results will be in the legislative and work programme in the autumn. This is where I think we have to focus much of our attention on this political debate.
I would also like to comment on a question raised by Mr Bonde. I am afraid I do not understand what he is saying, because for some time we have been sending our documents and proposals to the national parliaments. This has been a very good exercise and has been very much appreciated by the national parliaments. We have learned a lot from it, and it has increased the understanding of what goes on at European level in the European institutions at national level. This is also good practice for what will come in the new Treaty; not only that, we have also engaged in a dialogue with national parliaments on the annual policy strategy and on our work programme, and we have been asked to go there to explain and answer questions that the national parliamentarians have had concerning our plans and work programme. I think this has helped us a lot: we have learned from it, and national parliaments have an opportunity to anchor better and explain better what happens at European level. Therefore, I really hope that this will be a good experience for us. To engage the national parliaments in this is not lobbying; rather, it is shaping the European agenda. This means more democracy, I would say.
Finally, concerning the financing: you will be having this discussion separately, because this is part of the problem – we already have a financial framework until 2013, and we are all facing the limits of the financial frameworks. After 2009 we will have no additional human resources, so we will be careful to tell you not to ask us to do a lot of new things, because we will not have the manpower to deal with it. We have to realise that we are conducting this debate on the financial framework separately.
I also want to say to Ms Gräßle that, in the area of structural funds, the Commission has recently adopted a very ambitious action plan to ensure the integrity of the money spent in this domain. Together with the Member States, which, as you know, spend the money on the ground, the Commission intends to undertake all the necessary controls to ensure that every euro spent is well spent. We will regularly report on this to the Committee on Budgetary Control; this is our definite objective with the control of the money that we spend.
Finally, let me say that we can together focus on the communication priorities, because 2009 will also be a very important year in making sure we have a lively debate before the elections in 2009. As you know, the communication priorities for 2009 focus on the Lisbon Treaty. In the first chapter of this annual policy strategy, the Small Business Act is mentioned. This is part of the Lisbon Strategy and our review of the Lisbon Strategy: to focus also on exactly the things that you have mentioned. I think they are indeed very important."@en1
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