Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-03-Speech-3-071"
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"en.20081203.12.3-071"2
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"Mr President, Madame Vice-President, Commissioner, honourable Members, the debate has covered three key points, which I shall come back to, but first of all, I wish to thank Mr von Wogau and Mr Kirkhope, who thanked the French Presidency for what was done for the European citizens caught up in the Mumbai tragedy.
On the other hand, I think that the European Central Bank has been responsive and has acted well. In fact, a signal on rates is currently expected. We shall see what the decision of the European Central Bank is. All this is welcome, and I will not make any further comment.
Mr Karas was perfectly right to highlight – and Austria is a perfect example of this – that we also have to be able to seize the opportunities associated with the crisis, that the euro – and this has been confirmed, and Commissioner Almunia knows better than I do – that the feeling of belonging to the European Union – particularly in a country such as yours, I have been struck by this – has been transformed and changed as a result of this economic and financial crisis, and the fact that the euro, for countries both inside and outside the euro zone, has become a benchmark and a symbol, which is very encouraging.
I should like to say to Mrs Belohorská that everything you have said will be accurately reported to President Sarkozy, and I should like to thank her for what she has said concerning the French Presidency and its actions, and finally to say to Mr Wolski, that everything relating to our neighbours is important, and we shall discuss the Eastern Partnership Proposal, which is an excellent proposal produced by the European Commission, at the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs on Monday, at the ‘External Relations’ Council, and, of course, at the European Council.
We have worked hard with the Secretariat General of the European Parliament with regard to your representatives and the Government officials who were there, but I have to say, as has been highlighted several times, we must continue to work on better coordination between consulates and local diplomatic services in this type of crisis, in what is happening for that matter in Thailand at the moment. We have managed to do this, and we must carry on doing it. I was at Roissy Airport when the plane from Mumbai landed, and I could see that all the same eleven European nationalities were represented on the chartered plane.
I would also like to reiterate what Mrs Gill and Mr von Wogau have said, that Europe must indeed be present, must do more with regards to these terrorist hazards in that region of the world as in other regions. And this raises a problem not referred to during the debate but which will be discussed at the European Council, of the European Security Strategy. We must adapt and update this strategy to meet the terrorist threat, respond to cybercrime, respond to new dangers. We must also improve – and I am pleased that Mrs Gill asked this question – our systems in terms of planning and the conduct of civil and military operations, at European level. These aspects of European security and defence policy are, as you well know, important, and the French Presidency wishes to ensure that we can make progress in this area and that a clear direction can be taken in this area also before the year is out.
I now come back to what has been said about the institutional problems and the Treaty. I heard and I thank Mrs Doyle and Mrs McGuinness for their speeches, which were extremely clear and imbued with a sense of responsibility. I also heard Mr Brok, Mr Corbett, Mr von Wogau, Mr Duff and Jo Leinen on this issue.
Firstly: I think that we are making progress. We are making progress by taking the Irish requests seriously, and I address this remark to Mrs Doyle and Mrs McGuiness. We understand them and we also understand the Irish political situation that has been created in the Irish Parliament, and what efforts are being made on this difficult path. We can clearly see this. Each, however, must demonstrate their sense of responsibility. We shall demonstrate this, we shall propose a balanced solution that will enable us to move forward and progress together, and I say together, towards the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon, when the time is right, but I fully understand the timetable constraints of our Irish friends. These constraints should be respected – there are also political deadlines – and taken into consideration.
Jo Leinen highlighted this fact. Greater communication is needed, we should be closer to the ground, which is what we are doing with Mrs Wallström who is more competent than I am in this area, but who has made great efforts. We have reached an agreement on the communication policy strategy with your Parliament, between the Council and the Commission, and Mrs Wallström has also developed a strategy, which, as I saw in Dublin, was warmly welcomed by everyone. It is true that what is needed in this area is to demonstrate more effort, including in terms of communication.
With regard to everything that has been said, in particular by our Polish friends, in relation to the climate and energy package, we obviously have to take account of the specific situation, as I have said, of those countries with more problematic energy structures, in order to meet the targets. We must retain these targets. I think that means are available that will allow for the necessary flexibility so that specific situations and the requests made by our Polish friends can be taken on board. The French Presidency is doing everything in its power to achieve the necessary compromises, while retaining these targets, but rest assured that we are taking on board the specific characteristics of Poland, other Central and Eastern European countries and the Baltic States and their requests in the area of energy security.
I wish to say to Mrs Doyle, who also highlighted this fact in her speech, that as she is aware, codecision-making is actually a key concern of the French Presidency. The Council and the European Parliament have instigated a negotiation procedure, a trialogue, which, for the past month has been developed as the result of a large investment made, and the results of this trialogue – as Mrs Doyle is well aware – represent virtually 90% of the package. Now, all that remains before us is the last home stretch, the final 10% of the problems referred to by several honourable Members during these debates.
With regard to the economic and financial crisis, what has been said seems to me important, and as has already been stated, the feeling of urgency is shared by the Council and the Commission. What I would like to say, I would like to thank Mr Pirilli for his original ideas on the use of reserves, to say to Mr Bonsignore, that the plan also depends on what is available at the level of Community instruments. Constructing a plan would be to ignore the competences at Community level, the existing instruments and the available budget, and so cannot be done. That is as far as we can go."@en1
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