Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-07-15-Speech-3-019"
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"en.20090715.4.3-019"2
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"Mr President, allow me, first of all, to congratulate you on your election. I wish you every success over the next two and a half years. I was even able to understand your last request to keep to our speaking time without using headphones.
Prime Minister, your predecessor did not have an easy or positive start. The emphasis was quite rightly placed on energy, economy and external relations, but as is so often the case in life, what happens in reality is sometimes very different to what we had planned. In the Gaza conflict, the Council Presidency rushed straight in without first having agreed on a common European approach. In the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, millions of people were freezing before your government stepped forward and acted as an intermediary, with very successful results.
Despite the criticism, you were also successful in other areas. It is a lasting achievement of the Czech Presidency that the European Union did not make the mistake of sliding into protectionism, as was the case in the 1930s. That was and still is a real danger. On this issue the Presidency took a clear line, supported in particular by the Competition Commissioner. Many people want to use the crisis to promote a new economic nationalism. That would be catastrophic. For Liberals and Democrats, free and fair competition, as provided for in the Treaties, is the way to growth and prosperity.
However, if our citizens are to accept free competition, they want and need to be certain that the rules are the same for everyone. The distortion of competition, foreclosure, a preference for a state’s own national companies – all these things will lead not to the end of the crisis, but straight up a blind alley. During its Presidency, the Czech Republic, as a new Member State, rightly had to issue many old Member States with a call to order, which was unfortunately necessary in view of the fact that the internal market must not be eroded and rules must be followed.
The Czech Government proved ultimately to be helpless in the face of the constant harassment from Prague Castle and the vote of no confidence. Its fall in the middle of its presidential term was unprecedented. The whole of Europe looked to Prague in amazement. With this move, the Czech political class did a disservice both to its own country and to Europe.
Prime Minister, you have however shown that, in politics just as in football, a game can still turn even if substitutions are not made until it has gone into extra time. In the European Council in June the course was set for an overhaul of financial market supervision. It is now the task of the Commission to carry this initiative forward with determination. You have negotiated the guarantees for Ireland so that, hopefully, the referendum on 2 October will be successful. The Member States have formally agreed on a candidate for the office of President of the Commission and thus met an important demand by our group.
Prime Minister, you personally have done a good job and gained a great deal of respect. However, the first Czech Presidency will probably not take the place in the history books that we had all hoped it would. What we nevertheless ought to remember is your motto: ‘Europe without borders’."@en1
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