Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-12-Speech-3-204"
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‘My address cannot be devoid of emotion.’ This is how the first President of the European Parliamentary Assembly, Robert Schuman, addressed this respected House for the first time on 19 March 1958. Fifty years later, on your festive anniversary, we feel exactly the same.
It is absolutely clear that we can find appropriate solutions to the Lisbon challenges, the ecology and energy issues and the turmoil in the financial markets only if we take global trends and players into account and include them in our activities.
This applies to human rights and intercultural dialogue too, where you, the European Parliament, certainly have a leading role. I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the European Council, to express recognition of your role in pointing out human rights violations and monitoring elections and of the work of your delegations in international institutions such as the United Nations Human Rights Council. Your role within the framework of joint Parliamentary assemblies is also important and gives added value to European Union policies regarding third countries and regions.
Through your activities and meetings with high-ranking guests during the Year of Intercultural Dialogue, you are strengthening one of the basic European traditions, that is to say the fact that mutual respect and understanding are the basis of coexistence in Europe as well as in the world as a whole.
The range of activities of the European Union is constantly broadening, but they are all governed by a single rule: success is proportional to the degree of unity among the Member States, sectors, common interest groups and generations and within regional, national, European and global factors. Here the institutions of the European Union must serve as an example.
‘Every person is a new world. Only institutions that preserve the collective experience can mature.’ With this thought Jean Monnet takes us one step closer to explaining why the vision of the European Union is still often different from reality and why many Europeans, despite the very evident successes of the last 50 years, still doubt the benefits of European integration. To understand and value freedom, peace and diversity, the absence of borders and the benefits and future prospects of a united Europe, we must always be aware that there are other, much worse alternatives.
That is why our common task is to keep the European collective experience alive. From it we can draw strength to meet the current challenges. Thoughts of the past must be united with those for the future. Had we not joined forces 50 years ago, we would probably not be living in peace and prosperity today. The same can be said about the next 50 years. If we do not search together for low-carbon and energy-saving solutions, we will not succeed in slowing down climate change. We will face ever more floods, hurricanes, drought, new diseases, endangered ecosystems and climate refugees. It is essential that the results of European decisions and activities be sufficiently concrete and tangible for citizens to understand the crucial importance of the European Union in the preservation and improvement of their quality of life.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for your contribution to the development of the European Union over the last 50 years. I know what it has all meant for our generations. Actually, I was born in the same year as the European Parliament.
Until the end of this mandate and beyond, I wish you much success in your work, plenty of new ideas and steady persistence in the development of European values, democracy and way of life.
I am convinced that when celebrating the next round anniversary of this European house of democracy, we will again be able to celebrate visible progress in Europe.
Here I am addressing not only 142 national, but also 785 directly elected Members of the European Parliament. Looking back at the road we have left behind and at the blossoming of European democracy over the last 50 years should make us proud and very grateful to the fathers of the European concept. At the same time we are charged with the responsibility to continue the European story of peace, cooperation and prosperity to the best of our ability.
Let us recall the year 1958: society faced with the consequences of two destructive wars, the world of bipolar posturing by western and eastern powers, the cold war, the Cuban revolution, the first chip, nuclear experiments and the launch of the first space satellite. One hundred and sixty-eight million Europeans were united as the six members of the European Union, which healed war wounds, prospered economically and, together with the Euroatlantic Alliance, secured peace and democracy in the area. Sadly, the greater part of the remainder of Europe lived in a totalitarian environment of civil and economic stagnation or even regression.
In 2008 we are faced with a completely different picture: the multipolar world is concerned not only with economic and political competition, but also increasingly with cooperation in search of solutions to the present challenges. The elimination of borders that divided Europe from the Berlin Wall, the elimination of the Iron Curtain and the monitoring of internal borders will continue at the end of this month with the elimination of aerial borders within the enlarged Schengen area.
The territory of the European Union is more than three times larger than 50 years ago and it has three times more inhabitants, 23 official languages, a stronger internal market and a common currency. On average, the life expectancy of its citizens is eight years longer. Twenty-seven leaders of governments and nations – one third of us were living in totalitarian regimes 20 years ago – will be making decisions around the same table tomorrow. Today almost the whole of Europe lives in freedom and democracy. We should be aware of this achievement and celebrate it.
The life and work of the European Parliament since 1958 clearly reflects the progress achieved through integration over the last 50 years. After the initial advisory role, in the early seventies you gained the first real competences in respect of the European budget, and at the end of the seventies you had the first direct elections. With new agreements you obtained stronger competences in adopting legislation and appointing the top European political representatives. The new European Commission is also unable to exist without your confidence.
In the same way that the Treaty of Rome brought new responsibilities to Parliament in 1958, the Treaty of Lisbon, 50 years later, represents a big step forward for the European Parliament. The codecision procedure will spread to almost all European policies, and the role of Parliament in democratic supervision, the creation of international agreements and the appointment of the top European representatives will be strengthened.
I was very pleased when at the plenary session last month you adopted the report on the Lisbon Reform Treaty with a large majority. I would also like to congratulate all the Member States which have already successfully concluded ratification procedures, and I hope that they will soon be followed by all the remaining Member States.
Where the first 50 years of the European Union were devoted to the European agenda, our political and economic development and reforms, the next 50 years will certainly be focused on the global agenda as well. This is clearly indicated in the list of topics for tomorrow’s session of the European Council."@en1
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