Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-25-Speech-3-015"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20091125.6.3-015"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, I shall not go back to the nominations of last week. Let me just say that there was good news and there was bad news. The bad news was that it was not a Liberal who was in the President’s seat, but the good news was that it was a Belgian. As the President of the Commission said, Belgium is, in fact, a country with an overall consensus, certainly about European matters and about the future of Europe.
So, Mr Barroso, what we hope now is that we have a new Commission as soon as possible. I hope that there will be a large number of Liberal Commissioners in it –some people are saying there are too many, but for me 50% would be good! I think that nearly one third of Liberal Commissioners is a good figure. Anyway, I am very pleased that, of the eight Liberal Commissioners who have been presented as candidates for the Commission, there are four women, so there is a gender balance in the Liberal presence in the Commission.
On priorities, I think that there are three main priorities for the next days and weeks. First of all, Copenhagen. We have to make a success of it. I think there are two remaining questions: how to address the concerns of the developing world, and how to make a treaty that is legally binding, because that is the main question. What the substance of the treaty will be is important, but more important in my view is the legally binding character of all this.
The second point is the Stockholm Programme. For our group, the basic point here is the balance between security and freedom. It is obvious that we have to protect our citizens against terrorism and organised crime, but maybe, after 9/11, we have put too much focus on security and protection. I think that the Stockholm Programme – and also the philosophy of your Presidency – has to rebalance that towards respect for fundamental rights and also more openness in society. I think this is the big ambition and what the Stockholm Programme has to do. The view of our group, the ALDE Group, is that it is more ambitious than the Tampere Programme and the Hague Programme, but with a more important focus on the fundamental rights of the people. It is good to protect and to organise security, but you have to do it in a balanced way with respect for fundamental rights.
The third big task for the next days, as the President of the Commission said, is financial supervision. Mr Barroso, I think that it is perhaps becoming more and more clear that in the end, a single European financial supervisor is what we need. We need a good supervisory body for cross-border financial institutions that would link micro- and macro-supervision and perhaps link it as closely as possible to the European Central Bank – why not? – and, naturally, also to what is happening in the Commission.
What is important now is that the Council does not downsize the proposals that are on the table. That is my fear for the moment. In Parliament, we are pushing for more ambitious proposals, but I think the temptation for the moment in the Council is in the opposite direction. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that there is a good understanding about this between the Commission and Parliament, which will involve saying to the Council: that is codecision procedure, so if you come with proposals and the Council comes with proposals which go down towards the Commission proposals, that is not going to work in the Parliament. We are going in the opposite direction.
I think there is a majority here in Parliament in favour of going in the direction of a single supervisor. That is what we need in the future, and I think it is an important message to give to you to give to the Presidency, because there will certainly be a huge discussion on 10 and 11 December when there is the next European Council."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples