Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-10-Speech-3-024"
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"en.20100310.6.3-024"2
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"Mr President, I address you, Baroness Ashton, as Vice-President of the Commission, but also as High Representative – as, in contrast to the foreign ministers, I assume that, as High Representative, you also have some degree of political responsibility to this House. Today marks 100 days since the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force. There are two imminent and significant decisions to be made in terms of our direction of travel. One of them – as you, too, said at the beginning – is to expand foreign policy because the climate, energy and other matters are part of foreign policy, and the other is creating a dynamic and effective External Action Service.
Speaking of energy policy, Copenhagen showed that, if we are not united, if we are fragmented, if every Head of Government believes that he or she has to produce something specific, we will achieve less than we would otherwise have done. Not that we would have achieved something amazing, given the position of China and of the United States, but the terrible soap opera that was Copenhagen really should not be allowed to happen again.
Therefore – and I agree with Mr Brok in this regard – we need to obtain a sturdy External Action Service. I, like many of us, am not surprised, but am nonetheless appalled, to see how many of the foreign ministers are making problems for you out of petty jealousy. We are saying this very plainly. Many do give you their support, but many are making problems. They simply cannot tolerate the fact that they no longer have the lead role to play and are instead foreign ministers again. At the end of the day, being a foreign minister is not a bad job, and it does not need to mean that you should decide every detail of what goes on in the European Union. For that reason, we also say clearly from here that we will use our parliamentary capabilities to the full not to prevent something, but to build something constructive. An External Action Service is constructive – as it says in the Treaty of Lisbon – when it is clearly subordinate to you, Baroness Ashton, and also, of course, when it collaborates closely with the Commission.
Similarly, we will not tolerate any legal activity that has hitherto been conducted using the Community method and that is to continue in that way under the Treaty of Lisbon suddenly becoming intergovernmental. That, you see, is exactly what many ministers and perhaps even many Heads of Government want, not only in order to undermine the Commission a little, but also to undermine Community law. That is not acceptable. A clear line must be drawn.
How that will play out in relation to the External Action Service is something there will be discussions about over the coming weeks – as before. I will thus also finish on something that has already been said. It is not a question of timing, even if we do want a solution quickly, but one of content-based presentation. It needs to be said once again, specifically to the Council of Foreign Ministers, that this Parliament will exercise its rights – no more, but also no less – in connection with the budget and the Staff Regulations because we have a goal, which is an effective and efficient External Action Service."@en1
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