Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-02-Speech-2-069"
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"en.20080902.4.2-069"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, I add my voice to those of my fellow Members who view this agenda as a step forward, albeit a very modest one which is clearly very far removed from the needs facing us today in Europe. Therefore, Commissioner, I regret to say that you were wrong to state a moment ago that this agenda dispels public concerns. The public are concerned and with very good reason when faced with a European Union which does not resolve the basic problems they worry about every day.
The agenda has a very grand title, the agenda for the 21st century. Regrettably it has one feature which has already been condemned: it is an internal commitment to the contradictions within Europe, with those of us who want more of Europe and those who would like there to be less of it; it is therefore a forest of empty rhetoric and a desert of specific content. Only three directives are being summarised by the European left, and in fairly critical terms.
Are these Europe’s ambitions for the 21st century? No, Commissioner. Debating social problems is not only our ambition. The European Union, not just Europe, needs answers and it is very difficult for those answers to be achieved if, as the agenda states, they have to be found at national level. There are some answers at national level and there should be other answers at European Union level; the construction of the internal market should go hand in hand with rules which give it a human face, which prevent social dumping and which implement each and every one of the powers enshrined in the Treaties.
It is all very well to debate the problems but it would be better to resolve them and not create new problems with measures such as the working time directive.
Commissioner, Europe needs stronger initiatives; Europe needs a much more go-getting agenda in order for it to be close to the public and I hope that at the next elections, and this is not an entirely rhetorical matter, the Europeans who are seeking other policies give European politicians a new, more social face."@en1
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